The Seventh Day Adventist has bemoaned government’s failure to find lasting solution to the security challenges ravaging Plateau State especially Bokkos, Bakin Ladin, and Mangu Local Government Areas.
The group in a press statement signed on Thursday by Pastor Joshua Mallum, President, North-East Nigeria Conference of the church, lamented the perennial occurrence.
Periscope Nigeria reports that no fewer than 195 persons from 25 communities are said to have lost their lives from Christmas eve attacks.
Mallum noted that the fact that it takes longer hours to have the security come to the rescue of victims, added that it was worrisome.
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church is deeply disturbed by the recent rounds of gruesome attacks and is hereby expressing her stern position of disapproval and outright condemnation; most especially as the recurrence of such over the past few years hints at a well-calculated orchestration aimed at achieving an evil agenda of decimation for obvious reasons.
“The Church also observes with chagrin that despite repeated calls from well-meaning groups and individuals on the government to set up a machinery for tackling the security challenges in Plateau State and across the Federation, repeated manhunts and genocidal invasions of territories have become the order of the day, sometimes happening for long hours within the proximities of security outfits and in manners that overwhelm the inhabitants of the besieged communities.
“More worrisome is that these recent attacks were perpetrated in broad daylight, unlike the previous ones that were achieved under the cover of the night dark. It becomes much more worrisome that any distress cries through the modern means of communication that promises to be swift and efficient to get the attention of security personnel seem to dissipate into thin air as if the community has been thrown into a region of oblivion from where it cannot be heard,” the statement partly read.
While acknowledging that the people of Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Mangu, and indeed Plateau State as a whole are peace-loving and hospitable people undeserving of such visitation of mayhem, the church sympathised and mourned with the innocent victims of the heinous acts, calling on the security agencies to beef up security measures to curb further occurrences and restore the erstwhile peaceful status quo of the localities.
Mallum said, “We call on government agencies, corporate organisations and good-spirited individuals to expedite action for the immediate provision of relief materials to the displaced victims and those in the IDP camps.
“We also urge the government to step up. efforts at fishing out the perpetrators and bringing them to book by the requirements of justice.
“Moreover, we encourage the entire people of Plateau State to remain steadfast in its reputable peaceful disposition and to initiate measures of protection against further attacks.”
