Former Speaker of the House of Reps, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has urged Bola Tinubu to avoid following the precedent of his predecessors, who merely issued press statements mourning victims of killings, without taking concrete actions as Commanders-in-Chief.
Dogara, along with some current and former House of Representatives members, conveyed this advice during a condolence visit to Plateau State Governor, Barr Caleb Mutfwang, over the recent massacre of over 200 people in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi local government areas.
Dogara emphasized the need for Tinubu to use all available coercive apparatus to locate and bring to justice the perpetrators and sponsors of violence nationwide.
“Those responsible for the genocide and orgy of violence are all out to end our ways of life and must be stopped.”
According to him, “The perpetrators of these violence are not just crazy but are very dangerous, and the truth is that they won’t just stop until we stop them. We must stop them.
” Who has the responsibility to stop them? It is the commander-in-chief, but previously, they reduced themselves to mourners-in-chief instead.”
He stressed, “It means using whatever coercive security apparatus we have as a nation to locate where these perpetrators are and their sponsors wherever they are littered in the ungoverned spaces that we have in Nigeria whether in Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto or in southern Kaduna or the south, we must locate them and after locating them, the commander-in-chief must take justice to them or bring them to justice.
“The failure to either take justice to them or bring them to justice has always been the bane of the fight against terrorism and violence in Nigeria because it emboldens them. If they will kill on the Plateau and go scot-free, why won’t they kill in any other state in the North and in the South?”
According to Dogara, “Failure to act at that level is more or less an incentive for them to continue to deploy this unbridled violence on the people. So, my call, therefore, is to the President to rise up and for him to know that condolences at this moment, whether on the Plateau or elsewhere in the country, are better given in form of decisive action against the perpetrators of these violence and not by mere words.
“It beats my imagination as to why these things are happening in a country like Nigeria; violence, sponsors of violence, and those who actually participate in it. We may not know the reasons why they do this, as is the case with Plateau, but we can not deny that they want to upend our ways of life.”
“I read some commentaries of people who were trying to allude to politics which sought to lay the blame on the corridors of this State House, but we all know that although you are the Chief Security Officer of the state, you do not command or control any troops. Except for those who don’t know how the federation of Nigeria is structured,” he added.
He further stated, “Obviously, we have heard your passion about ending this circle of violence even during the campaigns, and we have seen how you are pursuing the issue of peace on the Plateau.
“We know how passionate you are, but if you don’t have the troops to deploy, you are reduced to just passing information, and if it is not acted upon, then what do you do?,”
Yakubu Dogara said, “We are here to extend our heartfelt condolences to you, the people of Plateau State, and especially the families of the victims of this unfortunate act of terrorism that was visited on the Plateau. We pray that our God, who is the God of all comfort, will comfort you all. We pray for the end of this kind of violence on the Plateau and also in Nigeria.”
In response, Governor Caleb Muftwan expressed gratitude to Dogara for his continuous support for Plateau state.
Muftwang acknowledged the challenges of tackling violence and emphasized the orchestrated plan to cause mayhem. He urged the need for critical leaders to rally around the President to address the root causes of the issue and provide solutions.
Governor Muftwang also raised concerns about the economy built around insecurity, questioning the financiers and the source of weapons. He reiterated his commitment, in collaboration with the Federal Government, to end the decades-long attacks in Plateau.
The Governor concluded by offering condolences to Dogara for the loss of his mother, praying for strength to bear the irreparable loss.
(Tribune)