Plateau killings and matters arising

Following a serious attack that led to the deaths of myriad between Friday and Sunday in Irigwe Chiefdom of Bassa local government area of Plateau State, the Governor Simon Bako Lalong imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew. When I heard the news, I was bit relieved - been that the motive was to restore calm and halt the further occurrence of such event.

While families are still mourning their beloved ones, another ensued on Sunday. This time, the victims were people who survived the first attack and were taking asylum at a public school in the same community - a horrific incident that caused the death of 27 people who were given a mass burial afterward.

It’s on all news outlets that the President through Garba Shehu condemned the attack, calling security operatives to put a stop to what he described as ‘madness ‘. But that isn’t enough! My reasons are obvious. In Nigeria today, giving an instruction is not a herculean task but the implementation might be.

The recent attack was not the first that was carried out in Bassa local government area of Plateau State. Last month, a verisimilitude of this one erupted in Ancha community of the area. Although the former was a reprisal attack by herdsmen sequel to the killing of a young cattle breeder by some angry mobs following a dispute which was neither on land or cattle issue.

Nobody thought that this act of incivility would continue to unfold. Though the leadership of Plateau State has met with community leaders of the warring parties who pledged to bring an end to these avoidable deaths of innocent people, the impact of the meeting is yet to be seen.

The issues discussed during the meeting might look salient but could also fall on deaf ears. And that is what really happened. How can a community attack another, living many dead and injured yet no arrest was made not to talk of bringing the perpetrators to book? All we heard is public condemnation on media (which we are used to) without an iota of justice.

To avert the occurrence of this onslaught, Government at Federal and State level should eschew obsolete and gooey approaches to conflict resolution and face reality. The unending peace parleys are not absolutely condemned but the first step to be taken for peace to reign is to bring the masterminds to justice.

The necessary steps should be stick to, to maintain the fragile peace of Plateau State, were even land disputes have metamorphosed to religious crisis in the past.

Mahdi Garba, Jos, Mahdigarba@gmail. com