Mr. Simon Lalong, Plateau State Governor.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – Youths in Plateau State on Wednesday defied the 24-hrs curfew imposed in Jos North local government area of the State to convey corpses of victims killed on Tuesday night at Yelwan Zangam community to the State House of Assembly and the Government House in Little Rayfield, Jos.
The youths in their numbers conveyed the corpses in a truck to the places, stressing they need to that so that, the Government which sometimes claim ignorance of killings in the hinterlands would see.
One of them, Silas Ayuba stated the “emergency curfew was put in place to stop them” but “government was not there when Fulani defied curfew and kill people who were sleeping.”
At the State Assembly, the Speaker, Abok Ayuba, who was physically moved by the sight appealed for calm and restraint saying, “We are all affected by what is happening in Plateau, but please, calm down as the government is doing everything possible to end the killings. We are your representatives, we are going to follow up with relevant authorities to ensure that peace returns to the state.”
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Abok, who condoled with the families of the victims, appealed to them not to take laws into their hands, saying that such action would only worsen the already bad situation in the State.
When the people vacated the State Assembly, members went in for a plenary where security, the issue of urgent importance was deliberated upon.
At the Government House, the youths took over the entire roundabout leading to the premises and asked that they be granted entry to “show the corpses to the Governor that does not know what we are going through.”
The gates of the seat of government was under lock at the time the youths arrived the place but they arranged the corpses in front of the locked premises, lambasting the leadership of Governor Lalong for being a failed one.
At the time of this report, there was no official statement concerning the development as no senior government official who has office in Government House was seen around the vicinity.
