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Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State
By Raymond Gukas, Jos
The Mwaghavul nation from Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State has come hard on the outgoing governor of the state, Simon Lalong over his warped commend over the unprovocked attack by suspected hearmen on it’s people that led to over hundreds of deaths.
The body in a statement described the Governor’s comment in an interview with a private television station as “most pedestrian and insensitive expression about the actual security situation” in the area.
Signed by Da. Lawrence Kyarshik, the Public Relations Director, DPA, of the Mwaghavul Development Association, MDA, it stressed that as the number one citizen of the state, he threw caution to the wind by insisting the state was in peace; for the past eight years which they said was totally false.
The statement added that the “toxic” claim by lalong that peace has been restored in the area was capable of misleading the people when in actual sense, hundreds of the attacked victims have no where to run to because their villages have been set ablazed by the maruaders.
It emphasised, “to begin with, we find Governor Lalong’s statement that flying jets and “a lot of security” over Mangu LGA as proof of restoration of security in the area most jaundiced, as it only depicts how myopic his understanding of security is.
“The kind of threats we are facing from Fulani terrorist herdsmen is typical of guerrilla warfare, in which the attackers target our villages at night and wantonly destroy lives and properties”
as such, Lalong’s claim of “a lot of security” was outrightly false.
According to the statement, “currently, most of our communities are still facing real threats of invasion by our attackers. For over a week now our people have not only been displaced from their ancestral homes, but more threats are being made to invade even Mangu town itself”
Again, the claim that IDPs are being attended to, “we find this most ridiculous of a person who is supposed to be the father of the State. It is rather disheartening that since Fulani terrorist herdsmen started attacking communities in Mangu LGA on 14th April 2023 up till the most recent attacks… “It is equally distressing just as it is traumatising that Lalong claimed in his statement that IDPs are being attended to” as lies.
“Lalong prefers to demonstrate his Father Christmas nature by leaving his state and going to far away Niger to donate a whooping sum of 32 million Naira to the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University in that State, when over 30,000 IDPs in Mangu LGA, in his State, languish in displaced persons’ camps, without any intervention from the State government.
“While we are not against any donation to any University, the choice of that opportunity to spew toxic lies about the security situation in our LGA is, to say the least, insulting to our collective sensibilities as a people. We challenge Governor Lalong to provide any proof that IDPs are being attended to in Mangu LGA by his administration”
With the volume of dsiplaced persosns; mostly women and children, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) or the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has visited the crisis areas, to assess the prevailing humanitarian crisis on ground, they lamented.
They full of appreciation to the philanthropic gestures of kind-hearted individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), friends and relatives.
