Motion Sponsor, Senator Plang Diket Salso says Plateau Northern and Central Senatorial Districts are lying prostrate, occasioned by incessant attacks coupled with the number of people being killed in the barbaric acts
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The Senate has called on the Federal Government to address the general insecurity and incessant attacks on Plateau State.
This was contained in a motion sponsored during Tuesday’s plenary by Senator Plang Diket Salso (Plateau Central), who noted that the past decade had seen recurrent crises across the state, especially in rural areas where insecurity has become a major issue that any administration in the state has to contend with.
He also stated that the cycle of killings and kidnapping has continued unabated despite all the efforts by successive administrations at the State and Federal levels to tame the ugly trend.
“Aware that as a result of this, many lives have been lost and properties destroyed,affecting the livelihood of innocent people. The economy of affected parts of the state, Plateau North and Central is lying prostrate, occasioned by incessant attacks coupled with the number of people being killed in the barbaric acts.”
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He also added, “Observers at Mangu and Bokkos, within the past months, no fewer than 300 people have been brutally murdered by those terrorists. Plateau has lost count of casualties because, in recent times, there is no day that one or two communities will not be under attack by those elements.”
As a result of this, according to him, most of them have been forced to flee their homes, while some are currently hibernating in IDP camps because their houses have been burnt or attacked severally.
Emphasising how it has affected the student in the state, he noted that Secondary School students could not partake in the just concluded WAEC examination.
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Similarly, while briefing journalists shortly after the plenary, he said: “The issue of insecurity, which I am certain is affecting all of us, we need to look into it and put more time to talk about it because it is only when we are safe that we can worship, it is only when we are safe that journalism can strive.”
The Senator also gave an account of his personal experience with kidnappers taking three members of his family and killing one in the process.
“As I am seated here, my house in the village was attacked twice. In the first instance, when I was a candidate contesting for election in the Senate, kidnappers came and kidnapped my mother, my stepmother and the hurl that worked for me, then killed my junior brother, who came out to react and then took them off and asked for something.
I was told to give because they left a dead body and that if I don’t give, I will bury more people. By the grace of God, I was able to secure the people that they picked,” he added.
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