SUMMON POLITICAL WILL TO DEAL WITH INSECURITY, NATIVES TELL JONATHAN

Following incessant attacks against innocent people in Plateau State, natives of the state under the umbrella of Movement for the Survival of Plateau People, have cried to President Goodluck Jonathan to summon the political will to deal with insecurity in the state.

They urged the president to deal decisively with the situation so as to stop once and for all the frequent breach of security in the state, which culminated in the recent series of bomb attacks that killed scores of people and injured others on the eve of Christmas.

While condemning the ugly incident, the Movement, in a letter to President Jonathan signed by Hussein Adamu, the president general and Mrs. Edna Yelwa, the secretary, lamented that 'the attacks have again added more pains to our sorrows in the hands of those faceless murderers who have found a new job destroying the Plateau.

'For us, it is another tragedy and a terror on a nation. While we commend the efforts of the security agencies in the past few years in trying to contend with these terrorists, it is, however, evidently clear that not much successes have been recorded in averting these attacks like the one of December 24, 2010.'

It argued that the security agencies could have done better to avert these skirmishes including the latest bomb blasts in the state given the incessant interceptions of arms and explosives intended for Jos and the Plateau, at different parts of the country and outside.

Recalling its earlier alert of influx of arms and ammunition into Plateau State, the Movement explained that it was shortly after its alert that in August, a cache of 53 pieces of AK 47 rifles heading for Jos were intercepted by security in Maiduguri, Borno State. 'That was a few days to another huge arms import into the country from Iran by a faceless group, which was also cornered by security at the ports. Reports have indicated that the Iran arms import was indeed targeted for Jos.'

The 10-paragraph letter read in part: 'In the past one year, clandestine killings have been going at different parts of the state resulting in several loss of lives while the security authorities in the state, the police and Securitym Task Force, STF, lament that the locations the killers were carrying out their various dastard acts were always impenetrable 'owing to the difficult terrains.'

'For us, it is highly condemnable for security agencies to bemoan their incapability in the face of threats like we have witnessed in Plateau State in the past one year. It is also amusing to learn that terrains, which are hitherto impenetrable by security agencies are made penetrable by the attackers. We also want to call on the Federal Government to take matters of security in Jos very seriously.'

For example, why will the inspector general of police transfer a competent commissioner of police who was already adapting to the 'difficult terrains' and the people, at this auspicious time, and bring in another who is acting as if the peace of Jos were not a serious matter to him?

'In this season of political activities, with election just a few months away and threats of violence from politicians all over the place, we call on President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to take the security of lives and property in Jos and the Plateau very close to his hearts. We only need a strong political will, as has been demonstrated by President Jonathan, to get to the root of this Jos crisis and fish out the conspirators in this mayhem. It is not a coincidence that the terror against Jos and the Plateau is rearing up at this season of political campaigns.'