TheCable

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) says President Bola Tinubu should deal “decisively with the perpetrators of the recurring senseless killings in the middle belt” area of the country.

The leaders of the forum, Edwin Clark; Ayo Adebanjo; Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu; Pogu Bitrus, and Emmanuel Ibok-Essien – made their request in an open letter to the president.

On Christmas Eve, many people were killed by gunmen who attacked 17 communities in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi LGAs of Plateau state as they prepared for the festivities.

They said urgent steps should be taken to restructure the country so that states and communities could provide security for their people.

“The joy expressed by you in your New Year message in welcoming your ‘compatriots to this brand new year 2024’ cannot be understood or shared by several millions of our countrymen and women, particularly the people of Mangu, Bokkos, Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State, where over 200 innocent villagers were killed by terrorists, with more than 300 persons injured, several properties destroyed and thousands of people have been displaced, between Christmas Eve, Friday 24th and Monday 26th December 2023,” the letter reads.

“The unrelenting massacre bordering on ethnic cleansing and armed occupation of the territories of the indigenous peoples of the Middle-Belt and most parts of Northern Nigeria by identified ethnic militias have shown without any doubt that the Nigerian state, its government, and security forces have continued to fail in the fundamental duty of the security and welfare of citizens as the primary purpose of government as stated in Section 14(b) of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“Your government holds an honest and truthful security inquiry to determine communities wherein the original inhabitants have been displaced in the last two decades and enforce the immediate return and resettlement of the people in their ancestral homes.

“Further to the above, the government should, in no distant future, close all IDP camps to end the shameful and sinful policy of building such refugee camps for the indigenous peoples while their ancestral homes are allowed to be occupied by the armed invaders.

“That you, Mr President, should rise to the occasion and dare the powers that be; decisively deal with the perpetrators of the senseless killings, end the massacre, and guarantee the safety of lives and property of citizens in all parts of our country, especially the Middle Belt Region, and restore the dignity of citizens and national pride; for which you will ever be remembered!”

They said it was evident that all ethnic nationalities had settled in their portions of Nigeria before the amalgamation of Nigeria in 1914.

The leaders of the forum said any attempt to take over ancestral areas by non-indigenous people could lead to the “dismemberment of the fragile Nigerian Federation”.