Plateau state governor, Caleb Mutfwang has disclosed that over 64 communities in the state have been taken over by bandits. Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ on Tuesday, Mutfwang said the latest attacks on communities in Bokkos LGA which claimed over 80 lives was sponsored by yet-to-be-identified individuals.
“I can tell you in all honesty that I cannot find any explanation other than genocide sponsored by terrorists.
“The question is, who are the persons behind the organisers of this terrorism? This is what the security agencies must help us to unravel.
“We must come to the point where we know the sponsors because it is not just the work of ordinary people. This is being sponsored from somewhere.
“I am sure that in the coming days, the security agencies will work together, not at cross purposes but in unison, to be able to bring out the requisite intelligence that will help us to put this matter behind us”, the governor said.
He said the bandits have taken over 64 communities across Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Riyom LGAs, following the incessant attacks.
“If these attacks have been going on for close to 10 years, it tells you that there is a deliberate, conscious attempt to clean out populations and to reopen.
“As I am talking to you, there are not less than 64 communities that have been taken over by bandits on the Plateau between Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Riyom local government areas.
“They have been taken over, renamed, and people are living there conveniently on lands they pushed people away to occupy”, the governor said.
The attacks are the latest in a series of assaults on Plateau, which has, in the past, recorded similar incidents.
On the eve of Christmas in 2023, over 115 persons were killed following attacks by gunmen on communities in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi LGAs of the state.
