Plateau attacks despite military presence worrisome — Dalung, Lumumba Adeh We’re not biased -Military taskforce

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, and a former member of the House of Representatives, Lumumba Adeh have expressed reservation over the recent attacks especially in the Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State despite the presence of a military taskforce charged with protecting the state.

“Dalung is saddened by the recent gruesome killings in two separate attacks in the early hours of Monday in Jos North and Barkin Ladi local government councils…The minister wondered why such attacks were becoming more rampant despite the presence of armed personnel,” a statement signed by the minister’s Special Adviser Media, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, said.

Dalung challenged the men of the Nigerian Police Force and the Operation Safe Heaven to combine all available resources and intelligence in tracking down those behind the attacks.

On his own, Hon Lumumba Adeh who represented the Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency between 1999 and 2003, said in an interview with Daily Trust, “The special taskforce in Plateau is not living up to its expectation. This is not the military that I know. There is either a deliberate intent to let things happen as they may or there is crass incompetence there. If they are denying complicity, let them show the evidence of their efforts. Let them show the people they have arrested, especially in the particular incidence of Monday (When attackers reportedly killed 29 people at a displaced persons camp). In the same camp where they (the military) were, these marauders came and killed these people without the military firing even one shot.”

Adeh asked for an investigation of the attacks, saying, “President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the attacks should stop, but he should go further and order an inquiry.”

At a media interaction in Jos yesterday, the Operations Save Haven (OPSH), the joint-services taskforce maintaining peace in Plateau State and some parts of Southern Kaduna and Bauchi State, said the taskforce did not side with either the Fulani or Irigwe ethnic group in the recent attacks on villages in Bassa LGA.

The commander of the taskforce, Major General Anthony Atolagbe, said there was no reason his command would take side, because its mandate was to protect the lives and properties of all the people.