News Editor
A fact-finding committee set up by Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang has revealed that many of the attackers responsible for incessant killings in Plateau are operating from neighbouring Nasarawa State and other border communities.
The committee, chaired by Major General Rogers Ibe Nicholas (rtd.), disclosed that its members engaged with various ethnic nationalities and stakeholders and visited violence-hit areas to gather first-hand accounts.
According to Nicholas, the attackers who frequently raid Plateau communities often cross in from Nasarawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Taraba States. He specifically cited reports of bandit cells in two villages of Nasarawa, bordering Quan’pan, which have forced residents of Plateau communities in the area to flee their homes.
“In Wase and Kanam, the presence of bandits’ cells with suspected links to extremist organisations was reported,” he added, stressing that the motives for the violence range from land and resource control to territorial expansion, ethno-religious dominance, political destabilisation, and criminal profiteering through kidnapping and cattle rustling.
Citizen Television gathered that, General Rogers further explained that porous and largely unmonitored routes including entry points from Nasarawa through Wamba, Lafia, and Awe are being exploited by the attackers for quick strikes and retreats.
The committee’s report noted that Plateau State has recorded 420 community attacks and nearly 12,000 deaths over the past two decades, describing the violence as “coordinated, deliberate, and devastating.”
Receiving the report at Government House, Jos, Governor Mutfwang pledged to act on its recommendations and to present it to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and security experts as part of efforts to find a lasting solution to the crisis.
