Bokkos killing: Buhari’s silence suspect – Plateau Reps

…As Lower chamber orders IGP to uncover, punish killers

Lawmakers from Plateau State in the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, expressed deep suspicion over President Muhammadu Buhari’s continuous silence on the recurring killings of Plateau people in the last few months.

This is even as the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, ordered the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to uncover and punish the killers of the paramount ruler of Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State, Dah Lazarus Amashin Agai alongside his family members and aides.

The traditional ruler was killed on Monday by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

Briefing journalists at the National Assembly, over the gruesome murder of the first class traditional ruler of the state, the Plateau Caucus in the House, said that it was sensing a plot to wipe off Plateau people, but President Buhari had not made a comment in all the successive killings.

Chairman of the caucus, Bulus Solomon Maren, who briefed newsmen, said that sometime in January, a village head was matcheted to death while on his way to church, while few months ago too, a District Head was also killed on his way home from Bokkos palace.

The lawmakers said that since Buhari became President, several other Plateau people, including the Majority Leader of the state Assembly and a Senator have been killed without culprits being arrested or the President making a comment.

The lawmakers said that the killings of their people and traditional rulers, especially that of the Paramount ruler of Bokkos by people suspected to be herdsmen, was an invitation to war, but that they have persuaded their youths to be calm to watch the actions of security agencies on the matter.

The lawmakers said that before now, people of Bokkos had cows more than any other group in the state, but these cows were rustled unchallenged by armed strangers, who also took over their farmlands and houses.

“We want to hear the President speak on this matter and the killings that have been going on under his government and not his aides speaking.

“While this people go about killing at will, there is a palpable indifference from the authority and the Federal Government that ought to protect the people”, the caucus stated.

The lawmakers were unanimous that these killings were clear index of a failed state, expressing their lack of confidence in the Buhari-led Federal Government.

They expressed their resolve to take this matter to international community to seek protection and help, insisting that “for us, as far as President Muhammadu Buhari is concerned, lives of others do not matter.”

The lawmakers said that the President had concentrated his efforts in fighting cattle rustling in North West and Boko Haram in North East, and pursue the security of oil installations in the Niger Delta while people of North Central were being killed at will by herdsmen without a word from him.

The lawmaker, Solomon Maren, had earlier bought a motion on the killing of the monarch alongside his son, daughter-in-law, police orderly and a relative, to the floor of the House, who he said were killed by unknown gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

He noted that the killing was one of too many that has occurred in series in the area since the advent of this administration.

“First, it was the Makai Forof Dah Ali Magaji sometimes in January 2016. The second was the District Head of Mangona, Saf Angong Adake, who was the Secretary to the Council of Chiefs, Bokkos LGA. And the worst of it, the one that occurred just yesterday (Monday), the Head of the Council and the Paramount Ruler of Bokkos people, was brutally killed by unscrupulous persons”, Maren said.

He argued that in all the cases mentioned above, there has been no security intervention to either stop the killings or bring culprits to book.

The motion was overwhelming supported by the House, which directed the IGP to investigate, fish out and punish the perpetrators of this dastardly act.

The House also directed all security agencies to deploy their personnel to the area to forestall breakdown of law and order.