BY SUZAN EDEH, WITH AGENCY REPORT
Bauchi- Obviously tired of living in fear, traders in Jos, Plateau State capital, Tuesday, urged the Bauchi State governor to come to their aid by building a model market at Narabi, the border town with Plateau State to enable them carry on with their businesses without hindrance.

The traders’ complaints came against the backdrop of the killing of over 1,000 persons following the ethno-religious conflict ravaging the state since 2001.

Most of those that died were killed through bombs planted in strategic places, including churches and mosques even as several families have been completely wiped out within same period.

The traders told newsmen in Bauchi that majority of them would readily re-locate to neighbouring Bauchi State, if the government “is magnanimous enough to construct a market at Narabi town.’’

Spokesman of the traders, Musa Karamba, told newsmen during a visit to the border town that they were tired of the vandalisation in Plateau State, just as the security of their lives and property could no longer be guaranteed.

This was even as the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, has deployed its officers to Plateau to assess persons displaced in the intermittent crisis in Jos.

Mr Yashau Shuaib, the agency’s Head of Media and Publicity, told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja that relief materials had already been dispatched to the once peaceful state.

But Karamba said, “we traders in Plateau State are worried about the persistent attacks on our lives and property by hoodlums hiding under the cover of ethnicity and religion.

“Traders like other businessmen and women, herdsmen, and other commuters are no longer safe in Jos, Plateau State.

“We have been subjected to series of attacks by hoodlums at the slightest misunderstanding with the intention to loot and vandalize our goods.

“It appears Plateau State Government has lost interest in our plight, because if not for the presence of soldiers in the city, we would have been wiped out through connivance of the indigenous people.

“We have tolerated enough and are now prepared to relocate our investments to safer environments.

“If Bauchi State can accommodate us in its territory that is peaceful and free from envy and hatred, we will reside there with our families.

“We have been left unprotected in Plateau State; because in most cases, we are hunted for murder by hoodlums and the Federal Government is deceived into believing that there is enough security.

“Several arrests were made in relation to wanton destruction of lives and property, but no single person has so far been prosecuted; just as arms and ammunitions were seized severally from persons including the discovery of an armoury and manufacturers of firearms, yet nothing was done.

“In 2001, a white missionary was arrested with a consignment of arms and there was another cache of large imported consignments of arms to Jos, yet nothing was done. We are always the target of the attack. We have to at least relocate our business to a more friendly and accommodating environment.”

Meanwhile, NAN reports that “already, relief materials have been distributed to the affected persons by NEMA office in Jos just as other men from its headquarters are on their way for assessment of the persons to ensure that they carry out their usual test to know those who are actually affected and are displaced in the crisis.’’