By Asile Abel, Jos
A group known as Plateau State Youths Council (PYC), Riyom branch have lamented that about 58 innocent souls were brutality murdered and 31 injured within the space of 41-days in Riyom LGA due to persistent attacks by the Fulani militias.
The group also revealed that over 82 houses and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed as 15,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) languish in pains without food and shelter.
They called on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to declared Mahanga community under Gashish district in Barkin-Ladi local government area a “terror zone” , the location which they believed is harboring the Fulani militias.
Speaking to newsmen at NUJ Secretariat in Jos, over what they described as unprecedented level of coordination and sophistication pattern of attacks, PYC chairman Riyom branch, Comrade Zang Kefas Davou tasked president Tinubu to provide more intervention and proactive measures to rejig Nigeria’s security architecture.
We demand a massive, permanent, and proactive deployment of security forces, particularly, troops of Nigerian Mobile Police Force (MOPOL) across all vulnerable communities in Riyom Local Government Area
Davou identified sustainable security reinforcement, protection of livelihoods and agricultural assets, return, resettlement, and rehabilitation of displaced persons, justice and accountability as well as urgent humanitarian intervention as some the demands for lasting solutions to the unending attacks.
“We demand a massive, permanent, and proactive deployment of security forces, particularly, troops of Nigerian Mobile Police Force (MOPOL) across all vulnerable communities in Riyom Local Government Area.
“The destruction of farmlands is a deliberate strategy by our attackers to impoverish our people and dispossess them of their land. We demand immediate, concrete and strategic measures to protect our farms from further destruction and provide adequate security for farmers to return to their fields without fear as the farming season deepens.
We demand that all ancestral lands illegally and forcefully grabbed by armed militias be immediately reclaimed and restored to their rightful owners
“We demand the immediate arrest, thorough investigation, and diligent prosecution of all perpetrators of these heinous crimes who are well known persons.
“We demand that all ancestral lands illegally and forcefully grabbed by armed militias be immediately reclaimed and restored to their rightful owners.
“We appeal to the federal and state governments through their humanitarian intervention frameworks, as well as international donor agencies, and humanitarian organizations to provide urgent relief materials, medical supplies, and psychosocial support to the thousands of IDPs and victims in Riyom Local Government”, Davou stated.
The silence of the world on the systematic annihilation of communities in Riyom Local Government is seriously deafening
Advocating for sincere and inclusive dialogue initiatives that will involve all stakeholders, aimed at addressing the root causes of these conflicts, the PYC chairman appeal for the intervention of local and international community, saying “the silence of the world on the systematic annihilation of communities in Riyom Local Government is seriously deafening.
“We urge global human rights bodies, governments, and media organizations to investigate, report, and pressure the Nigerian governments at all levels to uphold its constitutional duties and protect its citizens in Riyom Local Government.”
