Retired Rear Admiral Bitrus Atukum, former Military Governor of Plateau State, has urged the Federal Government and security agencies to urgently find a lasting solution to the persistent killings plaguing parts of the state.
Speaking in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Jos, Atukum, who governed Plateau between January 1984 and August 1985, reacted to the recent spate of attacks in Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Areas.
The retired senior military officer condemned the destruction of lives, homes, farmlands, and property, describing the attacks as deliberate acts of land grabbing and economic sabotage.
“These attacks are majorly aimed at land grabbing and ensuring that the people of Plateau remain hungry and poor,” Atukum stated. “The attackers have been using same pattern; attack, kill, chase people away and later on take over their houses and lands.”
He urged President Bola Tinubu to issue direct orders to the military to address the worsening security situation in the state.
“In the past, they deceived us with herder-farmer clashes, but how can you have a clash in somebody’s bedroom? These people go into people’s bedroom in the villages,” he said.
“These people come down from the hills, commit havoc and disappear, and that is where they hide their weapons. So, I call on the President to order the army to go and fish them out from their hiding places. That’s the only way to end this mindless killings in our communities.”
Atukum warned that the continued violence was not only displacing communities but also threatening food security by preventing locals from farming during the current planting season.
“We are now in the farming season and we won’t have sufficient number of farmers that will be farming on their lands. Of course, that will lead to perpetual hunger and poverty; the ordinary man is presently bearing all this brunt of these killings. It will be worse if nothing is done. That is why we have to speak out at all levels against this evil,” he added.
While calling on Plateau residents to defend themselves, Atukum cautioned them against taking the law into their own hands.
