Fresh from its three-week recess, the
House of Representatives resumed yesterday passing far-reaching
resolutions, including one that declared the killings in Plateau State
as genocide......
It also directed the federal government
to immediately run orphanages in areas affected by recent killings,
which had turned many children into orphans in order to ameliorate their
sufferings.
Condemning the killings and massacres in
the strongest terms, the lower chamber urged government to take
decisive steps to stop the killings and secure communities that had been
under persistent attacks.
The designation of the massacre as
genocide was largely to court the sympathy of the United Nations to take
special interest in the deteriorating security situation in the
country.
The resolution followed a motion of
urgent public importance on the massacre of over 215 persons in the
state and sponsored by Hon. Istifanus Gyang (APC, Plateau) and four
other members.
Also, in their resolution on the issue,
the lawmakers further tasked the federal government to recover over 52
villages currently under illegal and forceful occupation in Barkin Ladi,
Riyom, Bakkos, Bassa, and Mangy Local Government Areas and the
displaced owners be resettled on their ancestral land.
It said failure to effect the recovery was akin to allowing a criminal to retain the proceeds of crime.
The green chamber further demanded that
the masterminds and perpetrators of the attacks and massacres be
arrested and prosecuted, adding that there should be a Coroner’s inquest
and forensic examination of the weapons and ammunition used to
determine the cause of deaths, calibre and source of the weapons used.
Among other things, the lawmakers urged
President Muhammadu Buhari to go beyond verbal condemnation of the
attacks and take decisive and practical steps to give effect to Section
14 (2) (b) of the 1999 constitution as amended.
The House said the National Assembly
should immediately revisit the constitution review exercise to empower
states to establish state police for effective community policing and
maintenance of law and order as the federal security architecture has
failed to bring an end to violent attacks across the federation.
Gyang had in his debate expressed worry
that the attacks had a pattern where once a community was attacked, it
was cleansed by killing the native inhabitants, the houses burnt and
destroyed and the vacated land taken over for occupation, noting that
the cycle is a repeated and replicated in what had clearly manifested as
a land grabbing agenda.
He noted that virtually all the theories
known to peace building and dialogue had been experimented on Plateau
without success to stop the attacks.
Hon. Idris Abdullahi Wase (APC, Plateau)
in his contribution to the debate, opened a can of worms when he
fingered some politicians whom he claimed are sponsors of the killings,
adding that he had documentary evidence to support his position.
He said he would be willing to surrender
the documents to support his claim even though he was aware of the
attendant danger to his life.
The lawmaker urged those who fan the embers of violence to immediately stop the act.
However, given the weight of his
submission, the lower chamber okayed a request by the Leader of the
House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila (APC, Lagos), for Wase to be accorded
state protection.
On her part, Hon. Nnenna Ukeje-Elendu (PDP, Abia) said United Nations should see to killings in the country.
She also took exception to a recent
television interview by Femi Adeshina stressing that he appeared to be
insensitive to the killings in the country.
She said there appeared to be no direct
integration policy by the government, adding that effort should be made
to curtial proliferation of small arms as a way of addressing the
continuing killings.
Hon. Baba Isa Kaita (APC, Katsina)
blamed fake news for some of the killings, adding that some had been
based on rumours and false video releases which had fuelled public
apprehension about the situation in the country.
But his position was aptly challenged by
Hon. Mark Gbillah (APC, Benue) who said the killings he had personally
witnessed in Benue as well as herdsmen wielding AK47 assault weapons
could not be said to be the handiwork of fake news.
He said: “It’s not fake news or social
media hype that 200 people in Plateau were killed as well as killings in
other parts of the country. It’s no fake news that herdsmen brandish
AK-47 assault rifles.”
Hon. Aliyu Madaki (APC, Kano) said the
issue should be debated objectively, adding that “We must criminalise
any tribe in our debate. Being a Fulani man should not be seen as a
crime.”
He had stepped in to correct the impression that Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the killings.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the Speaker of
the House, Hon. Yakubu Dogara said history will be hash to the present
administration if it fails to stop mass killings of innocent Nigerians.
Speaking at the resumption of plenary
yesterday, he said whatever achievement being recorded by the government
will not be remembered if the orgy violence and mass killings of
innocent Nigerians continue unabated.
According to him, “History will have a
harsh verdict for us as a government if we fail to live up to this
responsibility and it won’t matter if we succeed in other areas.
Unfortunately, the stark reality now is that our citizens are fast
losing confidence in our security system.
“The stark reality now is that our
citizens are fast losing confidence in our security system. This must
not be the case. Before we ebb to the realm of anarchy, we must rise up
as true representatives of the Nigerian people to salvage the situation
and defend our hard-won democracy.”
The Speaker argued that the unresolved
issue of rampant killing of defenseless people, including innocent and
vulnerable children and women, in various parts of the country, calls
for a sober reflection adding that more concerted efforts by the
National Assembly to exploit all our constitutional powers and
privileges to ensure the protection of lives and property in the entire
country by the security agencies.
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