allAfrica.com Take allAfrica.com with you


Plateau Killings Spread - Alli Wants Foreign Help

P.M. News (Lagos)
NEWS
May 24, 2004
Posted to the web May 25, 2004

By Aromeh Attah
Jos

Fighting has spread in the killing fields of Plateau State, where President Olusegun Obasanjo Tuesday last week declared a State of Emergency, with reports of killings in Pandam, Namu, Saminaka and Barkin Ciyawa in Quanpan Local Government Area of the state last weekend.

At the last count, not less than 74 villagers had been killed by Hausa militias roaming Plateau villages and seeking to spill blood.

As a result of these fresh killings, thousands of refugees have been streaming into Kwande and Langtang Local Government.

During his tour of the affected villages, the new Administrator, Major-General Chris Alli (retd), was confronted with despair, as the victims narrated their ordeals in the hands of the militias brandishing sophisticated weapons.

The administrator, who was accompanied on the tour by Mr.Idris Gabriel of the National Refugee Commission, was told of how about 500 armed men from Nassarawa State attacked Christians in some villages in the area shortly after emergency rule was imposed on the State. The refugees also complained of starvation and urged the administrator to act fast.

Responding to the plea of the victims, Major-Gen. Alli, warned the fighters to lay down their weapons and embrace peace.

He declared that as an army general, he was trained to use force to quell riots, adding that he has the wherewithal to enforce peace if fighting did not stop.

Major-Gen. Alli, gripped by the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis, appealed to the international community to come to the aid of the state, by donating relief materials to alleviate the plight of the refugees.

Meanwhile, reports reaching PMNews this morning indicate that fully armed anti-riot mobile policemen have been despatched to the troubled villages to keep peace, while some arrests have also been made.

President Obasanjo at the weekend on a CNN interview said the imposition of a State of Emergency in Plateau State had doused tension in the land and reassured Nigerians that they were safe in any part of the country.

 
 

Copyright © 2004 P.M. News. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).