Plateau massacre: Senate blames intelligence failure, summons security chiefs
Reps to probe incessant killings
The Senate yesterday summoned the heads of security agencies over the killing of not less than 145 people on Christmas Eve in bandits’ attacks on 23 villages in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs of Plateau State.
The attacks, which also left hundreds of people injured and property destroyed, were said to have occurred from Saturday night to the early hours of Monday.
The Senate said due to the coordinated nature the massacre was carried out, it showed that there was failure of security intelligence.
The Red Chamber, following a motion by Senator Diket Plang (APC, Plateau) during Saturday’s plenary, invited the National Security Adviser (NSA), Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Director General (DG) of the State Security Service (SSS), DG of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over the killings.
The security chiefs are to brief the Senate on the killings to enable the parliament to take further action.
Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), who chairs the Northern Senators’ Forum, and who described the attacks as unprecedented, said his findings after spending 72 hours in Plateau and meeting with the state’s governor indicated that the attackers, in collaboration with some locals, carried out the attacks in a wellcoordinated manner.
He said the bandits, numbering about 400, operated freely without hindrance, alleging that the security agents failed to act on a prior information before the attacks.
Ningi said, “There was a rumour of these attacks. The governor tried to make this information available but they (security agencies) did not take him seriously. The entire security architecture of the state failed.
“What we have discovered is that these marauding bandits did not come with weapons; those weapons were actually domiciled in certain locations; all they do is to come and pick them.
“That means there is something behind what is happening in Plateau. Who are these people and why are they doing it?
“From the outside, you will think it is a religious war, no! There is something behind it that this Senate must need to unravel. It is a very terrible phenomenon.”
Sen Simon Lalong, a former Plateau State governor, faulted the claims of the military that the terrain was difficult to access and that the attacked communities were too distant from military formations.
He expressed disappointment that despite the various military operations, including Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), keeping peace in the state, lives were being lost in a gruesome manner.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has mandated its committees on police, defense, army and national intelligence to investigate the root cause of the incessant killings with a view to providing a lasting solution.
This followed a resolution on matters of urgent public importance sponsored by Ahmed Idris Wase (APC, Plateau) and 35 others at the special plenary on Saturday.
Presenting the motion, Wase recalled that 12 villages in Bokkos LGA were attacked on the 24th December, 2023 which include; Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat and Butura Kampani village according to preliminary police report.