Matawalle, Service Chiefs visit Plateau over killings

The Minister of State for Defence, Mr Bello Matawalle, Service Chiefs and other officials on Sunday visited Plateau over the gruesome attacks on some rural communities in the north-central state.

Worst affected by the Christmas eve attacks were Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas.

Official sources said that more than 200 people were killed with close to double that figure sustaining various degrees of injuries.

The Minister, who was also accompanied by Betta Edu, humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation minister, told Gov. Caleb Mutfwang that the visit was on the directive of President Bola Tinubu.

The minister assured the governor and people of the state of the commitment of the Federal Government toward tackling insecurity in Plateau and Nigeria in general.

“We are here on the directive of the President to commiserate with you and assure you of total commitment toward securing the lives and property of the people.

“We are also here to see the level of destruction; we shall interact with the people in the communities to have first hand information.

“I want to assure you that this incident will not occur again; these criminals will be crushed soon.

“We share in your pains and will make sure the security personnel work day and night; troops will take the fight to the enclaves of these criminals; we will look for them and not wait for them to attack our people,” he said.

The Minister added that the president had demonstrated the political will to end the violence in the state, insisting that the federal government would not allow the criminals to take over the country.

He assured the governor that the humanitarian needs of the victims would be addressed.

“This is why the minister of humanitarian affairs joined this delegation; she is expected to ascertain the humanitarian needs of the people,” he said. He, however, urged the people to be united and support the security agencies toward ending the orgy of violence.

Responding, the governor thanked the minister, the service chiefs and other government officials for the visit, adding that the move had rekindled confidence in the readiness to tackle security challenges confronting the state.

He thanked Tinubu for demonstrating an unwavering political will and commitment toward protecting lives and property in the state.

“Your coming has rekindled our confidence in the federal government and the armed forces to ensure that the Christmas eve killings don’t occur again.

“We are calling on the security agencies to unravel those behind these coordinated attacks on our people

“Let me thank our president for mustering the political will to deal with the security challenges not only on the Plateau, but in the entire Nigeria.

“For us as a government, we will do all that is needed of us to ensure these issues come to an end,” he said.

Mutfwang promised to deploy the services of hunters and local vigilantes to support the conventional security agencies toward steming the tide of insecurity in the state.