President of the Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria (RCCN) in Taraba state, Rev. Bulus Yerima, accused the state government for not doing much to stop the killings by bandits in communities in Ussa Local Government Area of the state.
Many people have been reportedly killed in several communities in Ussa LGA in attacks by bandits in the past one week.
Speaking in a telephone interview with AmazingTimes on Saturday, Yerima alleged that the government lacks the political will to stopped the killings.
He also said security personnel were overwhelmed by the activities of the criminals.
According to him, the bandits could have been flushed out if the government could muster the political will.
He accused the Taraba state governor, Darius Ishaku, for not doing anything to stop the ongoing mayhem.
“This is not the first time these killings are taking place in Ussa LGA.
“Last year (2022), there were similar attacks. Many people were killed, their homes and churches were destroyed.
As I speak with you some of the victims of those attacks are still living at IDP camps”, he said.
Yerima said, the latest attacks “started immediately after the governorship election when five people were killed in an ambush along the road connecting the famous Kwesati market to Lissam, headquarters of Ussa LGA.”
He added that, “Two days after nine people were killed in the same area.
“The youths in the area, got angry that the Chief of Lissam did not do anything about the killings and they burnt his palace.
“There was also another attack in Fikyu community. The bandits operated there for more than five hours without response from security agencies. They killed so many people.
“In the evening of that day, the army went there briefly and returned back to Takum.
Irom community was also attacked, there was intervention by the army and the police to avert bloodshed.
“We are yet to ascertain the exact number of casualty, we are still gathering information about the number of people killed and those injured. But more than 30 people may have been killed.”
The RCCN President lamented that state government has not done anything to stop these killings.
“In fact, the chairman of Ussa LGA resigned his position as a result of failure of the state government to stop the attacks.
“The council chairman said he cannot watch his people being killed without the state government not taking any action.
“The governor is not doing anything about it. He doesn’t even care about it”, he said.
Yerima said further that government seemed to have abandoned the people to their fate, noting that even the state own media did not report about the killings.
“Only the member of House of Representatives from the Area, Rimam Shawulu and a member of House of Assembly from Ussa that have been crying out about this unfortunate incident.
“We have been calling on the government to address this problem without any positive results”, he said.
He maintained that despite the seeming inaction of the government, “we will not be tired calling on the government.”
He said, “The security agencies seemed to be overwhelmed. The government does not seemed to have the political will to tackle the problem.
“If government could send thousands of security personnel to a state to conduct elections, why are they not willing to send thousands of security personnel to a Local Government to flush out these bandits?
According to him, “These bandits can be wiped out in one week if the government means business.
“They will just send eight or 10 soldiers to the affected places, how will 10 soldiers confront bandits who are in hundreds?
“We are calling on the government to be serious, because there would be no government if there are no people.”
