An Abuja-based Southern Taraba inspired group, G-20 Club have enjoined the Taraba state government as well as political office holders in the area to unite and find a lasting solution to the lingering security challenges confronting the zone.
In a statement released by the group and signed by its Director of Public Relations, Uti-dah Volpuize in Jalingo it said it was worried by the spade of attacks in the area especially, the recent ones on Jenuwa and Tati villages of Takum Local Government and Yangtu Development Area.
It said it was time for the state government to take realistic steps to end the incessant attacks on innocent people and properties as this unwholesome trend has adversely affected the welfare and economic well-being of inhabitants.
According to the G-20 Club, many families in the affected areas have abandoned their farmlands as the bushes were no longer safe, thereby jeopardising their livelihood.
“If this situation is not redressed, then the future of our people is under serious threat as they can no longer engage in farming, which is their primary economic activity.”
They posited that development was already eluding the zone as the absence of peace has disrupted economic activities as traders from other parts of the country have abandoned patronising the area due to insecurity.
“We are therefore calling on the State Government as well as other political leaders to rise to the occasion by initiating means of bringing this madness to a halt before it consumes all of us.”
The group also appealed to security agencies operating in Southern Taraba to increase the tempo of intelligence gathering and intensify patrols of the countryside so as to nip any potential breakdown of the law in the bud.
It would be recalled that seven soldiers of the Army Battalion in Takum were killed around Tati area, while the commanding officer and his orderly have been missing since the day of that deadly attack.
The statement also called on the people to maintain the peace as the government alone can not achieve that without their cooperation.
They therefore, condemned all the attacks in the strongest terms, adding that without peace, the security of both inhabitants and travellers alike could not be guaranteed.