Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, has warned that the country may become another Somalia if serious steps were not taken to curb the spate of killings and other forms of violent crimes.
The governor spoke in Jos, the state capital on Saturday when he received former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogora, who led some serving and former members of the House on a condolence visit to the state following the recent massacre of about 200 people in Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin Ladi local government areas by terrorists.
Mutfwang expressed gratitude to the former Speaker for always identifying with the state and urged him not to be silent but to keep pushing for the interest of the people.
“There is a deliberate orchestrated plan to cause mayhem to discomfort us. We may be knocked down, but we are not knocked out. Our spirits are not broken. God has placed us where we are, and He will preserve us.”
The governor, who expressed regret that the killings had continued unabated on the Plateau for many years, noted that Nigeria risked becoming like Somalia if the security challenges confronting it is not addressed
“It is unfortunate that this circle has continued for years. We are praying that as a nation we will get it right so that we toe the path of justice that we don’t allow people to slip into self-help because once we allow the people to go into self-help, we will become another Somalia.
“There is an economy that has been built around this insecurity. We need to know who the financiers are and who paid for the hundreds of AK47 rifles. Where did they get them from,” Mutfwang queried.
Earlier, Dogara criticised the way and manner President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was handling the security challenge facing the country and advised him not to toe the ignoble path of his predecessors.
Dogara said Tinubu’s predecessors only mourned victims of killings in press statements, thereby reducing themselves to mourners-in-chief instead of taking responsibility as commanders-in-chief
He urged the President to rise to the occasion and use every available coercive apparatus to locate the perpetrators and sponsors of violence across the country and bring them to justice.
Dogara maintained that those responsible for the genocide and orgy of violence were out to end the ways of life of Nigerians and must be stopped.
