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Tag: Mangu

  • Mangu: A wedding and a funeral

    Mangu: A wedding and a funeral

     The North Central is smouldering, and we must worry. The last tragedy was in Mangu area of Plateau State when travelling wedding guests were ambushed and 13 people died. According to eyewitness accounts, including survivors, it was a case of aggression by locals. They did not accept pleas for help but, monster-eyed, the locals killed one after another and set their bus ablaze.

    They were coming from neighbouring Kaduna State. They were there to be merry, to share in the kinship of wedlock and joy. They did not bear arms, they bore gifts. They did not know the neighbourhood but expected the locals to be neighbours. They were visitors but no strangers to the Nigerian community. They and the locals were fellow indigenes of the constitution. They may be Hausa-Fulani but they were Nigerians. If there was conflict with the Fulani neighbours, they were not there to swear but to sup. The locals spun the hour around, even though the guests were there for peace and food and drinks and laughter.  Seeing the guests, the locals did not want to guess.

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    Wedding suddenly became funerals. The kolanut, clothes and other presents suddenly became paraphernalia of tears. They redesigned wedding clothes with blood lines. Like Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet when arrangements turned suddenly from wedding to funerals, this is life imitating art.

    Governor Gabriel Mutfwang’s Mangu was not turbulent until he became chief executive. The story is often reported about onslaught of the Fulani, and reporters have not done well of reporting the other story. The wedding tragedy is just too gruesome to miss.

    One wonders whether the governor has had to meet with his predecessor Simon Lalong, who set a template that endured with relative peace when he was governor. I think we need to return to that drawing board to avoid more buses on the burner and guests aflame.

    Meanwhile, all those who committed the crime ought to be brought to justice.

  • Mangu: A country without justice

    Mangu: A country without justice

    Sir: On their way to a wedding somewhere in Plateau State, a busload of passengers travelling all the way from Zaria was attacked in Mangu by armed men somewhere in Mangu. About a dozen passengers including women and children were killed and many others injured.

    There is no context that can justify such an iniquitous act of injustice, but Mangu, the hometown of Governor Caleb Mutfwang, and the local government where he was once chairman, has become a land flowing with cold blood. These attacks more than confirm an unfinished business of blood.

    In 2023, after particularly heated and close elections during which Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party and Nentawe Yilwatda of the All Progressives Congress ran neck to neck, the PDP clinched a victory that was subsequently contested all the way to the Supreme Court.

    But even before the matter went to the election petition tribunal, the local government became the venue of many deadly attacks. The intensity and frequency of the attacks seemed to suggest that they were as much about insecurity as about politics.

    Although thr killings that came on the heels of the election quickly died down, but the deadly attacks which erupted out of nowhere against helpless, hapless and defenceless passengers exposed Mangu, Plateau State and Nigeria as a whole as a country without justice.

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    In what sort of country do citizens feel so secure in their abominable criminality that they attack innocent travellers and set their vehicle ablaze with them in it? In what kind of country do people travel with their hearts in their mouths, painfully aware that any moment could be their last as a result of insecurity?

    It is incredible how many Nigerians have lost their lives in agonizing circumstances in the last few years, and just how lost the government appears to be in obtaining justice for them and finding a lasting solution to the killings.

    There is also a lot not going for Nigerians at the moment. If the country is falling at the hands of a challenged government, must citizens also turn on themselves and become killers of one another?

    When crimes are committed and there is no accountability leading to justice, it is usually only a matter of time before the criminals who have not been put away strike again. Injustice only ever breeds more injustice.

     As for those who kill because of politics, religion and ethnic affiliations, the shocking disdain they show for human life can never detract from the sanctity or inviolability of human life or from the fact that they will pay with as much in the near future.

    • Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Mangu attack: New CP vows to crush criminals

    Mangu attack: New CP vows to crush criminals

    The newly posted Commissioner of Police to Plateau State CP Hassan Yabanet, has vowed to deal with criminals causing trouble in Mangu and other parts of the State.

    The CP made this known on Saturday when he paid an unscheduled visit to the attacked communities in Mangu local government area.

    CP Yabanet, who was received by the Transition Implementation Chairman of Mangu, Hon. Markus Artu, said he is in Mangu, being the epicenter of the crisis, to hand information about the situation and convey the message of the Inspector General of Police as well as encourage officer in the field to double their efforts in restoring peace to the troubled communities.

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    While responding, Hon. Artu, who congratulated the new CP, expressed delight with the visit, saying his deployment to Plateau was born out of his track records of performance.

    The Mangu Council boss expressed optimism that the new Commissioner of Police will deliver on his mandate, while assuring him of all necessary support to ensure that peace returned to the state.

  • The carnage in Mangu

    The carnage in Mangu

    SIR: Caleb Mutfwang is a former chairman of Mangu Local Government Area. He won the March 18, 2023 election to become governor. He won at the Supreme Court on January 12 to remain governor.

    Mangu has never been the same since Mutfwang became governor. Until he was declared winner, his local government area was largely spared Plateau’s penchant for bloody chaos.

    Since Mutfwang won, the killers who hover over the Plateau have deployed their killing machines to his local government area. Dozens of people have been killed. Many livelihoods utterly destroyed.

    Fighting resumed in the area on January 23, prompting Mutfwang to plunge the LGA into a 24-hour curfew.

    Coming exactly a month after more than 200 people were killed in neighbouring local governments, the pattern is clear. Ruthless killers are stationed in the Plateau waiting for the word from those who sponsor them. They butcher babies, then go on to occupy the lands emptied by their slaughter.

    Plateau has been an amphitheatre of such atrocities for decades, as has Kaduna, Benue and Nigeria’s Northeast.

    Mutfwang is unable to do much for his people beyond declaring curfews and making desperate pleas to the federal government, which has the resources to act.

    Those resources must now be put to use. Those playing politics with innocent lives in Plateau State should be named.

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    If by now, Nigeria’s intelligence services do not know those sponsoring terrorism in Plateau State, they must be disbanded.

    If they know, Nigerians deserve an explanation as to why they have not been brought to book.

     A lack of transparency in public affairs produces public mistrust.

    If those in government do not know those sponsoring violence in Plateau State, they have no business being there. If they know and refuse to do anything, it is betrayal.

    The killers prowling the Plateau may be foreigners imported into the country and state to wreak havoc, but who are their collaborators within?

    Who are those Nigerians giving away their brothers and sisters?

    Mangu deserves justice more than peace. The whole of Plateau State deserves justice.

    There can be no justice unless the killers and their sponsors are exposed and successfully prosecuted.

    Justice cannot be served until the machinery of death in Mangu is dismantled. It remains to be seen whether this government can do it.

    • Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com

  • Breaking: Lalong declared winner in Plateau

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared incumbent governor of Plateau State and Candidate of the All Progressive Congress APC Barrister Simon Lalong winner of the 2019 Governorship election.

    The total results was declared at exactly 4am on Sunday at the end of the collation of results which lasted between 9pm on Saturday night through the early hours of Sunday.

    The governor was declared the winner by the Returning Officer, Prof Richard Anande Kimbir, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue state.

    Lalong emerged winner in the March 9th election and also emerged winner in the May 23rd supplementary election.

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    By the total results, Gov Lalong defeated his major rival, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, General Jeremiah Useni (Rtd) .

    Lalong polled a total of 595, 582 votes to defeat the PDP candidate Useni who scored 546, 813 votes .

    Results for the nine LGAs that took part in the supplementary poll, including Langtang South, Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Jos North, Kanam, Mangu, shendam and Pankshin showed that Lalong scored 12,327 new votes, while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jeremiah Useni, earned 8,487.

  • 2,945 Corp members sworn in Plateau

    Prospective Corp Members serving in Plateau State, 2018 Batch A have been sworn-in today, at Mangu Camp.

    The colourful event, held in honour of the Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalung was well represented by the Deputy Governor, Professor Sonni Gwanle Tyoden

    Giving a keynote address at the event, State Coordinator of the NYSC Scheme in Plateau, Mrs Oluwafumilayo Akin Moses noted that a total of 2,945 Corp members have been sworn-in.

    In a highly inspirational speech, she spoke of the importance of the NYSC scheme as she laid claim that the scheme has created several bonds amongst graduates across Nigeria.

    “The NYSC scheme has created several bonds. This is seen in our camp that has brought in members from the 36 states in Federation altogether.”

    She enjoined the Corp members to do their due diligence in making the country proud. She also enjoined newly sworn-in Corp members to participate in activities that will be beneficial to them.

    Deputy Governor of Plateau State, Professor Sonni Gwanle Tyoden also shared in the honour of addressing the new Corp members as the Corp members treated him and other distinguished guests to a honorary salute, as well.

    The oath of service was administered by a representative of the Chief Judge.

    Side attractions were not left aside in this parade, as the audience were treated to interesting cultural dances and a tug of war organised by the Man’ O War.

  • Plateau community bans feeding of sympathisers by bereaved families

    Worried by the financial burden on bereaved families, the Mwagavwul community in Mangu Local Government of Plateau has abolished the feeding of sympathisers visiting bereaved homes.

    “Experience has shown that bereaved families go through a lot in the efforts to feed and please the multitude thronging in to sympathise with them over the loss of loved ones.

    “As a community, we have banned such feeding in the bye-laws endorsed by our development association,” Mr Joshua Mape, National President, Mwagavwul Development Association, told the Newsmen on Wednesday in Jos.

    He said that it was not fair to worsen the economic situation of mourning families, adding that the community arrived at the decision after “very wide consultation”.

    Mape said that the practice of feeding mourners was alien to the community.

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    “Feeding sympathisers is not part of Mwagavwul culture. It is not fair or right,” he said

    He regretted that some bereaved families had often borrowed to feed sympathisers, saying that the trend was “a huge and unnecessary burden”.

    Mape, however, suggested that sympathisers could bring food to bereaved homes to feed those that had lost their loved ones.

    “In Mwagavwul land, the sympathisers are expected to take food to the bereaved families because they are already hit by the trauma of losing a loved one and cannot cook,” he said.

    He said that the association set up a committee which looked into issues affecting Mwaghavul culture before it enacted the bye laws to guide the lives of the people and save their culture from being corrupted.

    “The bye laws abolished celebrating the death of people less than 65 years. It also pegged the bride price to be paid on Mwagavwul daughters at N50,000, irrespective of location and education”.

    The association leader commended Mwagavwul rural communities for celebrating annual festivals, saying that the platform had always promoted the unique culture and heritage of the people.

    Mape urged the Plateau government to complete work on the 150 kilometres Panyam- Wamba road abandoned more than a decade ago, saying that it would ease the movement of farm produce from rural communities to urban centres

    NAN

     

  • No-work-no-pay: Plateau Govt. reverses policy, redeems workers’ salary

    No-work-no-pay: Plateau Govt. reverses policy, redeems workers’ salary

    The Plateau Government on Tuesday commenced payment of workers in 17 councils of the state who suffered the no-work-no-pay policy of former Governor, Jonah Jang.

    Jang had  in 2014, refused to pay workers four months’ salaries when they went on strike in protest over non-implementation of payment of their minimum wage during the period.

    Mr Paul Seku, Chairman, Plateau Central Zone Committee on Payment of No-work-no-pay for Local Government Staff, disclosed this during the committee’s visit to the Chairman of Pankshin Local Government.

    “We are in this council today to commence the payment of the No-work-no-pay to all the local government staff of this council and the remaining four local governments within the Plateau Central Zone including, Mangu, Bokkos, Kanke and Kanam.

    “This is in fulfillment of the promise made to the staff by our loving Governor Simon Lalong, when he asked the workers to withdraw the court case in Abuja for amicable settlement.

    “We are starting with Pankshin Local Government, and thereafter, move to other local governments where we hope to complete payment within this week, ’’  Sheku pledged.

    Sheku, who is also the Director General, Plateau Debt Management Committee, explained that the verification would give the committee the opportunity to pay one month out of the four months owed the workers in cash.

    According to him, “after this payment, the remaining three months salaries will be paid to them through their accounts in their various banks’’.

    Responding, Mrs Naomi Golmwen, Chairman, Pankshin Local Government, expressed happiness over the magnanimity of  Gov. Lalong and described it as a welcome development.

    She expressed the hope and belief that the payment of the fund would go a long way to mobilise the people of Pankshin to retain the governor in 2019.

    “This is a long awaited goodwill of the governor that has become a reality today; our community depends largely on salary, and I believe the payment will touch many homes and build their confidence on the government.

    “To us as politicians and leaders, it will build a strong support for us to go all and mobilise the people for their cooperation and support for this administration both now and come 2019, when we shall seek their mandate, ’’ she said.

    Golmwen assured the committee of the orderliness of the council’s staff and advised the cashiers to cooperate with the committee for successful verification and payment.

    The Council NULGE Chairman, Mr Pankyes Benwuk, described the exercise as a “dream come true’’ and commended Lalong for keeping to his promise.

    “We hope that the four months being owed us will be completely settled before the end of this year as early pledged by the government, ’’ Benwuk said.