By Gabriel Yough
Jalingo – Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in Taraba on Thursday appealed for more security presence in their ancestral homes, which they claimed had been destroyed by marauding herdsmen.
The Coordinator of the IDPs, Mr Dauda Goding, made the plea on behalf of the displaced persons when the National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Samson Ayokunle. paid them a visit in Jalingo.
Goding said that 11 IDPs had died in various camps within Jalingo since January.
“Our living condition as displaced persons for more than one year is becoming unbearable and we are tired of begging because we are not lazy people,” he said.
Reacting to their plea, Ayokunle said that he had discussed their plight with President Muhammadu Buhari and was hoping to see improvement.
“I have taken this matter to Mr President at Aso Rock several times. I have pleaded with Mr President to show more concern by not just sending the police or army to those communities, but also ensuring that the attackers are arrested,” he said.
The CAN president, who distributed relief materials to displaced persons to ameliorate their hardship, opined that the country was ripe for states to have their separate security apparatus, to enable them tackle the incessant killings being experienced across the nation.
Ayokunle, who decried a situation where arms and ammunition have become so rampant, urged the federal government to institute an inquiry into the sources of those ammunitions and evolve strategies to mop them up.
“Nigeria cannot continue to have unknown gunmen because the killers are not spirits.
“The people that are attacked know those who are attacking them but what they don’t know is who is equipping those attacking them with ammunition they are using.
“Government must be able to go to every nook and cranny where trouble is happening. I want to repeat my appeal to the federal government not to play politics with this issue of security.
“We must appraise our way of doing things over time and strive to do things the way they are supposed to be done,” he said.
Rev Innocent Solomon, CAN chairman in Taraba, thanked the association’s President for the kind gesture, and pleaded for more prayers for the state and the nation to overcome its numerous security challenges. (NAN)