North Central Governors liken Plateau killings to Rwanda genocide

On Christmas Eve, gunmen attacked 25 communities in three local government areas in Plateau State killing over 150 residents of the communities.

The governors also urged President Bola Tinubu's government to get to the root of the recent killings in Plateau State.

One of the governors, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State likened the killings to the Rwanda genocide and also cautioned against attributing the killings to herder-farmer clashes.

The Rwanda genocide in 1994 led to the killing of the Tutsi minority ethnic group in the country.

Sule, who is the Chairman of the North Central Governors Forum led his colleagues to Jos to pay a condolence visit to the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, on Tuesday, January 2, 2023.

Sule said it's high time the FG found a solution to the problem in Plateau State, adding that the crisis had gone on for too long.

The governor said, "We have seen a similar situation in Rwanda because I won't call what is happening in Plateau farmer-herder crisis. It's not. We have seen what happened in Rwanda and luckily, all four of us governors were there and we listened to the President of Rwanda when he told us about the courage that he took to actually invite everybody that is involved and look at the root causes.

"We cannot allow a few people for selfish reasons to come in and destroy all of us. This is not about Fulani. It is about criminals and we are asking the Federal Government to assist us and deal with the problem."

He said the NCGF was in Plateau to sympathise with Governor Muftwang and encourage him to find the root cause of the recurring crisis in his state.

In his remark, Muftwang thanked his colleagues for their concern, noting that criminals attack the North Central region because of its rich mineral resources.

He said, "Bandits are terrorists and kidnappers are thieves. We need to label them as such so that we deal with them as such. The North Central contains much of the resources of Nigeria and when we face these people as criminals, it will be for the good of all of us. If the North Central gets it right, Nigeria will get it right."

It would be recalled that on Christmas Eve, gunmen attacked 25 communities in three local government areas in Plateau State, killing over 150 residents of the communities.

The bandits also razed about 221 houses.