Plateau relaxes curfew as commissioner traces history of crisis

PLATEAU State Governor, Simon Lalong, has further relaxed the 6: 00p. m. to 6: 00a. m. curfew earlier imposed on Jos North Council. This followed the relaxation of the 24- hour curfew on the heels of the attacks on Yelwa Zangam community, which claimed no fewer than 36 lives.

Announcing this after the State Security Council meeting with other stakeholders, which went into

Tuesday night, Lalong said: “Beginning from today, September 8, 2021, the citizens of Jos North will observe the curfew from 10: 00p. m. to 6: 00a. m, everyday.”

He said the new curfew hours would tally with that of Jos South and Bassa.

The governor also said that the ban on tricycles had been lifted.

T

HE Commissioner for Lands and Survey, Yakubu Dati, has traced the Jos crisis to religious bigots and conflict merchants.

Dati told The Guardian in Jos yesterday: “Political opportunists latch on primordial fault lines to feed a narrative that sees crises from the narrow lenses of ethnic and religious divides.

“As this is hardly the case with the recent issues in Plateau State, people of good conscience have been able to scrutinise the twist, analyse its content and expose it as baseless due to reasons, which we shall soon see.

“For about six years ( 2015 to 2021) since the coming of the current administration, Plateau has witnessed and has continued to enjoy tremendous peace compared with the preceding years when the state was set in turmoil for a period of time.”

THE immediate past Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Hassan Ardo, has said that scavengers are feeding fat on insecurity.

Ardo, who spoke extensively yesterday with The Guardian in Jalingo, was miffed that some persons decided to “politicise” the issue of security in the country.