- Mutfwang said nomadic herders have taken over communities and renamed them after displacing locals across Nigeria.
- The governor insisted violent displacement has created a massive humanitarian crisis with victims now vulnerable to armed conflict.
The governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, has renewed his call for the establishment of state police across the federation.
He made the demand during the North-Central Public Hearing on the review of the 1999 Constitution in Jos on Friday.
The governor described state police as an overdue reform, insisting that insecurity in the country has grown beyond the control of centralised policing.
He warned that the security situation in Nigeria has become a national emergency affecting all regions with increasing levels of violence.
According to him, “Permit me to highlight on the issue of insecurity and the need for State Police which has become an elephant in the room which we all acknowledge is present but are unwilling to address but which we must as responsible leaders speak about in order that silence may not be confused for that which it may not mean.”
He lamented that violent crimes, previously limited to some areas, have now spread nationwide, creating what he called a “cancerous growth eating into the fabric of our collective union.”
He said, “While the common denominator underlying these security breaches is the upswing in the violence against persons and properties, certain patterns in terms of nature and prevalence, are attributable to specific regions such as insurgency and terrorism in the Northeast and North Central regions, anarchic ethnic nationalism and secessionist agitations in the Southeast and criminal and gang wars in the South West and South South zones.”
Mutfwang noted that ritual killings, extrajudicial executions, and communal clashes are rising across regions due to competition for scarce resources.
He said, “A typical example is the perennial and unwarranted killing of farmers by nomadic Fulani herders which is no more confined to the agriculture belts of the North Central region, but has now spread to virtually every precinct in the nation as virtually no community is spared from the seeming impunity of the Fulani herders which have now converted the entire nation into a veritable killing field especially in the last 15 years.”
He decried the humanitarian crisis arising from violent displacements, saying displaced persons now live in dire conditions in camps nationwide.
The governor said, “The modus operandi of perpetrators of genocidal attacks on communities is marked by the intent to totally annihilate primordial ethnic nationalities, owners of arable land with a view to converting them to grazing land.”
He added that many communities sacked by herders have been renamed and occupied by new settlers, leaving original inhabitants stranded.
According to him, “The variegated displaced population have found refuge in internally displaced people camps all over the country and are facing dire humanitarian existing conditions which increases their vulnerability to armed conflicts as potential victims and perpetrators.”
He argued that the government’s failure to end the killings raises concerns about its capacity to uphold its social contract with citizens.
“The Nigerian State capacity to discharge its obligation under the social contract, is significantly threatened by the proliferation Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs),” he said.
He noted that past government strategies, including peace deals and state security outfits, have failed to stop killings and restore peace.
Mutfwang observed that armed attacks on civilian and security targets continue despite both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches from the government.
He warned that unless something drastic is done, Nigeria may be seen as criminally negligent in refusing to adopt workable solutions like state policing.
He said, “It is therefore clear that the necessity of state police in the federating units is an idea whose time has not just come but is belatedly being discussed at the risk of the looming allegation of the nation itself being labelled as being criminally negligent for failing to adopt measures which could have long stopped this massive hemorrhaging of monumental proportions hitherto unseen in modern climes for a nation ostentatiously not at war.”
He called for constitutional reforms that reflect grassroots realities and respond to the nation’s pressing security and development needs.
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