…Emergency wards, mortuaries saturated with victims —NMA

…We’ll continue to have recurrence unless there’s justice —Lalong

…Says those behind crisis resident in other states

…No one should be above the law, Sultan tells FG

…Tasks security agencies to demystify ‘unknown gunmen’ attacking communities

…Urges President Buhari to convoke, chair national confab

…As CAN President condemns ethnic, religious colouration to Jos massacre

…Buhari working to leaving behind safe, prosperous nation in 2023 —SGF assures

…ACF condemns killings on the Plateau

By Marie-Therese Nanlong, Luminous Jannamike,Ibrahim Wuyo, Olayinka Ajayi

Families of some survivors of the attack on Yelwan Zangam community of Plateau State who are in critical condition, have cried out over the shortage of blood in hospitals their loved ones were being treated in the state capital, Jos.

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, also lamented that emergency wards and mortuaries in the hospitals continued to be filled with victims of incessant killings and urged the government to put a stop to the crisis.

This came yesterday as the state governor, Simon Lalong,  said until there was justice for previous crisis in the state, the problem would continue to recur, adding that those behind the crisis were resident  in other states of the federation.

This is even as the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, asked the Federal Government to identify and deal decisively with those who incite individuals and groups to actions that compromise the peace and security of the country.

The survivors, who lost so much blood as a result of excessive bleeding and needed to be infused, are currently at a risk..

Apart from shortage of blood, some of the survivors are on oxygen, while many others need support to feed and take their drugs.

It would be recalled that the Red Cross Society Nigeria in the state had even gone on air to ask spirited members of the public to donate blood, so the victims could be infused.

“Our loved ones need blood to survive but unfortunately, hospitals where our people are being treated do not have enough blood.  Most of the patients are in very critical condition and need blood urgently,’’ said John Silas, a family member of one of the patients.

Another family member, Mrs. Mary Rwang Pam, appealed to the state government to come to the aid of the victims and ensure the hospitals got blood for the patients.

Rev. Sis. Jovita Egwu, who is the Chief Medical Director, Our Lady of Apostles, OLA hospital, who spoke with our correspondent on phone, said:  “As of today (yesterday), the survivors we have here are up to 12, their immediate needs are blood, which is very scarce and even where we use to get, we cannot get.  ‘’Some of them are on oxygen, we have that and we have taken care of  that. There are other needs like what to eat and other things, since most of them had their houses burnt.”

Asked if there was any intervention from the state government, she said the hospital was about writing to the State Ministry of Health to intervene.

 “For now, we have not seen any government official coming to their aid but this morning (yesterday), we intend to write a letter to the State Commissioner of Health to assist.”

However, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nimkong Lar, told our correspondent:  “So far, the government has given over N4 million or so since the problem started on August 14.

“Government has been giving support to hospitals, it has given money to Bingham hospital, OLA and Plateau hospital, so I am sure it will continue to support.

‘’Their (survivors) bills will be taken care of, it is not Yelwa Zangam alone, the one before and others. There is going to be a continuation. Government is trying, there will be support.”

Emergency wards, mortuaries saturated with victims —NMA

Meanwhile, the state branch of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has expressed sadness at what it described  as persistent and vicious acts of inhumanity currently ravaging the society and exerting a great toll on the physical and psychological well being of the masses across the state.

In a statement jointly signed by Dr. Innocent Emmanuel, its Chairman and Dr. Bapiga’an William, the Secretary, the body noted that the victims of the unwarranted attacks continued to populate hospitals’ emergency wards and mortuaries in the state.

The statement read:  ‘’Innocent, armless, accommodating and committed citizens of Plateau State have continued to live under the perennial unsavoury reality of perpetual terrorism manifesting as kidnappings for ransom, rape, maiming and killings as well as threats of total annihilation.

“On a daily basis, people are kidnapped from their houses and are living with the fear that same will happen the next day elsewhere.

‘’This worrisome and sad turn of events is severely bleeding the resources of the people and ultimately wrecking the economy of the state in general, resulting in further increase in the sufferings that have characterized the life of ordinary citizens who abinitio have mostly been living below, at or only slightly above the poverty line.

“People face the brazen reality of being attacked, injured and or murdered in cold blood, while their homes, farmlands and means of livelihoods are completely destroyed with no end in sight to these hostilities.

“In the face of these mindless and grave atrocities, the Nigerian Medical Association on the Plateau State chapter wishes to call upon government and the security agencies to live up to the minimum expectation on them to protect lives and property which is the primary responsibility of the government as well as the security agencies.”

We’ll continue to have recurrence unless there’s justice —Lalong

Reacting to the killings yesterday, Plateau State governor, Simon Bako Lalong, said until justice was done on the lingering attacks in the state, the attacks would keep recurring.

While reacting to the demonstration by aggrieved persons in the state, Lalong, who spoke through his Commissioner for Information, Dan Manjang, in a monitored programme on Channels Television yesterday, said: “People have every right to be angry with the situation in the state but I can assure you that as a state government, we need to do everything possible within the ambit of the law to stop this.

“Some of those things are the curfew that was put in place for security to take charge of the place to safeguard lives and property. The corpses that you saw dumped at Plateau State House of Assembly we have evacuated, and we plan to go bury them, while the peace keeping agency continues talking to the warring community and anything that is proactive for forestalling future occurrence.

“What people should understand is that as a state government, we are not happy, even when an animal is killed wrongly, no one should be happy. No right thinking Plateau person is happy. This matter has taken us so many years backward.’’

On why these attacks are happening again,  he said: “It is not something anybody has control over but the onus rests on those doing the investigation. After the investigation, we would then know what actually went wrong.

READ ALSO: Plateau Attacks: Shocking details of how 70 persons were killed, 55 injured, 30,000 displaced

‘’Like we said, we don’t want to stereotype people. The most important thing is that arrests have been made and when these people are interrogated, we would probably get a confessional statement and know whether there are collaborators and whether there are perpetrators.

“But what went wrong was an activity of a criminal element. And it is the extension of those criminal elements that manifested itself to the gory situation we have found ourselves as a people.

‘’We have celebrated the coming back of peace for about six years now. It’s rather unfortunate and part of it is inhumanity, and criminal elements that are involved so that they can loot properties and occupy their enclave.

“These attacks are one too many and even in the past, we have had commission of inquiry set up and there are white papers to those commissions of inquiry. Some community leaders that were on bail were fingered for these attacks.  There would be no sacred cow and we would be more than happy to find a lasting solution to this situation. Findings can only make sense when government white papers are issued. When government white papers are issued, there are various levels of implementation.

‘’As a government, we are not satisfied. How can we be satisfied when our people are being killed on a daily basis?  Unless people are punished, unless there’s justice, we will continue to have a recurrence.

‘’We have had a situation whereby criminals were intercepted, investigated and arraigned in court and before you know it, the case file was transferred to Abuja and that was the end of it. We must work in a way that we will punish to serve as a deterrent to others.”

‘Those behind crisis resident in other states’

Speaking in another forum, Govenor Lalong said those who spread inciting messages which fanned toxic ideas that sparked the recent crisis in Jos and its environs were people outside the state.

He said:  “The past few weeks in Plateau has been very challenging as we have witnessed a resurgence of attacks on innocent citizens leading to the loss of many lives and destruction of properties.

“While we continue to take security measures to deal with criminals, such attacks are easily given ethnic or religious colours.  Unfortunately, we have seen that some of those who propagated inciting messages that caused the crisis are people outside our state. 

“So, I urge you to pray for Plateau State as we are doing everything possible to address the situation.   We are isolating the few criminals that want to return our State to the days of agony and we shall deal with them. In all the recent attacks, arrests have been made and justice will be done.”

No one should be above the law, Sultan tells FG

Meanwhile, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, has asked the Federal Government to identify and deal decisively with those who incite individuals and groups to actions that compromise the peace and security of the country.

The Sultan, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 3rd quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council, NIREC, in Abuja, yesterday, said where comments by leaders posed an imminent threat to security of lives and property, such individuals should be arrested and prosecuted. 

He said this against the backdrop of a viral video by a popular Muslim cleric in Zaria who reportedly vowed that there would be reprisals over the recent killing of 22 travellers in Jos, Plateau State, along ethnic and religious lines. “What are our security agencies doing that they cannot invite those making these videos and saying nasty and bad things that raise tensions higher?  ’Nobody should be above the law, whether you are a Christian or Muslim. You cannot incite people to kill innocent people,” the Sultan said.

…Tasks security agencies to demys-tify ‘unknown gun-men’ attacking communities

While lamenting the level of insecurity in the country, the Sultan noted that it had become a worrisome situation that security agencies were unable to demystify the ‘unknown gunmen’ who raid communities and institutions, kill unarmed citizens, and abduct scores of people unchallenged. He said:  “How can people who do these things be unknown? Where are our intelligence agencies? Don’t we have a proactive intelligence agency that will think ahead of bandits?

“In Eastern Sokoto alone, there was a day we buried 76 people who were killed in cold blood by criminals that came from ‘nowhere’. There was another day we buried 48 people in the same Sokoto but you didn’t hear about it.

 “All the people committing such atrocities must be identified. The security agencies must up their game, find them, and take action on this kind of carnage. If we start doing so, all this carnage we see in this country will stop.”

…urges President Buhari to convoke, chair national confab

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke and chair a national dialogue on the challenges facing the country, with a view to designing lasting ways to solve them.

“What is so difficult in the Presidency leading a national dialogue? Why are we afraid of talking to one another in a dialogue? What dialogue cannot solve, violence cannot solve it either.

“So, I think it’s high time, we put aside ethnic and religious sentiments aside and tell ourselves the truth that what is happening in this country is not right. This is the way we should go, if we really want to have a country.  The President should lead the way in this,” the royal father added.

CAN President condemns ethnic, religious coloura-tion to Jos massacre

Also speaking, the President of the Christian   Association of Nigeria, CAN, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, condemned the violence in Plateau State, saying a situation where crimes were painted in religious, ethnic or political colours, rather than condemnation, was a source of concern to many Nigerians.

Ayokunle, who co-chairs NIREC with the Sultan, added that criminals had found it easier to shield themselves with ethnic and religious cover to escape or be emboldened to commit more crime.

“Nigerians are worried about the state we are in our nation. It is extremely frightening. It is time for us to unanimously condemn this criminality without any sentiments,” the CAN President said.

Buhari working to leave behind safe, prosperous nation in 2023 —SGF

In his address, Secretary to Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, noted that, contrary to popular thinking, President Buhari was more concerned about the security challenges in the nation as well as the economic hardship of Nigerians.

“President Buhari is, however, working to resolve these issues in the shortest possible time. This administration is doing everything to bequeath a safe and prosperous nation to the next one by 2023,’’ he said

The SGF, nonetheless, said the situation in the nation at present called for the deepening of political and religious collaboration at all times.

He stated:  “As a body, we must continue to build an environment where prejudice, intolerance and violence will remain alien. We must continue to live together and pursue the common goal as a nation.’’

ACF condemns killings

Reacting to the killings yesterday, Arewa Consultative Forum,  ACF, condemned the killings in Plateau State and called on the residents to support the peace initiatives.

Emmanuel Yawe, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, said in a statement:  “On  August 14 this year we issued a statement in which we pointedly condemned the resumption of hostilities between various communities on the Plateau. We were talking about the killing of over 20 travellers trapped in communal violence in the state.

“In that statement we called on the people of Plateau to remain calm and not do anything that would aggravate the bad situation they were already in. We also called on the religious and traditional leaders to restrain from making statements that would inflame passions.

“Sadly, our advice has been ignored. Tension has remained high on the Plateau in the past two weeks leading to the tit for tat tactics of the past which led to a lot destruction of both life and property on the Plateau in the past.

“Already over thirty lives have been lost and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed in the resumed hostilities this week alone. We condole with the people of the state and governor Simon Lalong on these avoidable losses.

“Governor Lalong has already imposed a 24hour curfew on the troubled area of the state. We call on him to take other measures that will reduce the pains and losses of the people of the state.

“We call on the people of the state their religious, traditional and political leaders in the state to support his peace initiatives. Without peace Plateau state will be doomed. What the state has already lost is enough.”

Vanguard News Nigeria