Plateau attack: ‘Those terrorizing Nigerians are less than local govt’

Nigeria is in a state of war and those terrorising the country are not up to a Local Government, so why are they defeating the entire country?, says Governor Rocha’s Okorocha of Imo State.

Okorocha stated this yesterday at the visit of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), who visited Plateau State to commiserate with the State Governor, Simon Lalong and the people of the State over the recent killings which claimed more than 200 lives.

Okorocha said, “those who are killing innocent Nigerians are not up to a local government, how can they defeat us if we come together to fight them.

“We must fight back, my brother governor, with our support, you will do everything you can to bring them to book”.

The Forum which presented an undisclosed sum of money to their colleague to assist the internally displaced persons in the State, lamented the widespread violence across States in the country saying they are determined to overcome insecurity so that the people do not rise up against them.

Speaking during the visit the Imo State governor also disclosed that the last meeting the Forum had was centred on issue of insecurity in States, which seek to undermine the Nigerian state and called on Security Chiefs to rise up to their responsibility or they would be left with no option but to call for their replacements.

Among the governors who visited were the Governors of Delta, Nassarawa, Sokoto, Imo, Benue, Bauchi and Deputy Governors of Akwa Ibom, Edo, Oyo and Ondo State.

On his part the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari noted that when he made the statement of not being addressed as the Chief Security Officer of his State, it was because his hands were tied that when people were being killed by the marauders, security did not rise as expected to defend them.

According to him, “At the last meeting, we discussed issue of insecurity extensively as it is happening in almost every State. We condemn what happened in Plateau State and other States; we are looking at how to fight on a common front to defeat the challenges seeking to undermine the Nigeria state.

“Between March and June in my State, we have 115 incidents and 435 people lost their lives, our people are suffering. Within two hours, 235 people were killed, 80 found in one place.

In Plateau State since 2012, this is the largest. These people must be brought to book because people have taken things for granted for too long because no one was brought to book, this must change.

“I have done my best, so have my colleagues, the unfortunate thing is that security are not there until the deed has been done.

We must do something as leaders else, the next thing target would be us because people may turn against us. We will have a day interface with the Security Chiefs to make them understand our plights and sit up or we will have no option but to ask the President to drop them.”

He encouraged the Governor to continue in his good work to restore peace, assuring that the Forum is with him.

Before the Forum’s visit, the Nassarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura with the Council of Chiefs from the State had earlier visited the State to condole its people and donated the sum of N10 million to support Governor Lalong in catering for the displaced persons.