The Jos Branch Chairman of the Association, Leah Dagung Hassan, who led her counterparts from Pankshin, Bukuru and Shendam to a press conference in Jos on Tuesday, described the recurring attacks as genocidal and intentional, warning that the time for rhetoric is over.
Her words: “The reaction of the Nigerian Bar Association as adequately captured by the President of the Association, Mazi Afam Osigwe SAN, in the press release of 15th April, 2025, calling on the Government to rise up to its responsibility of safeguarding and protecting the life of the citizen. We adopt in totality the President’s address calling on the Government to uphold the tenets of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to wit the right to life.
“That all perpetrators who are arrested be prosecuted in the State and not be taken to Abuja where we do not hear anything about them again, indicating that they have been released.
“This is not a communal clash as stated by some individuals in the society but an intentional attack to wipe out helpless citizens sleeping in their houses in the night by wicked men who have no regard for human lives.
“We cannot continue to be silent in the face of these barbaric and evil act of killing innocent citizens and taking over their ancestral lands making them strangers in their own home.
“The continued bloodletting in Plateau State, under the guise of communal crises must no longer be treated with indifference or vague promises. The slogan should no longer be ‘Enough is enough’, but it should be ‘This is Enough lets Stand up and take Actions.’
“The Nigerian Bar Association on the Plateau will not stand by while our communities are turned into killing fields. We shall continue to use all legal and moral platforms available to us to demand justice, accountability and peace for our people.”
She said the recent attacks have further deepened the trauma of a people who are yet to recover from previous episodes of mass violence, adding that what is playing out is nothing short of a coordinated assault on human lives and dignity.
She continued: “We commend the actions taken so far by the State Government and further call on the State Government and the Federal Government to take comprehensive and proactive steps to forestall future occurrences of this genocidal attacks on the people of Plateau State.
“We therefore make the following demand: The immediate identification, arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of these wicked act.
“That the Federal Government should deploy adequate Security Personnel to vulnerable communities with clear mandates for community protection.
“That States should be allowed to establish State Police who will be armed with weapons to defend our communities.
“The Communities be allowed to defend themselves, we therefore demand that the Federal Government empower vulnerable Communities with Self defense mechanism and equipments since the Security Personnel we have are not enough to secure our lives.
“Provision of relief and rehabilitation for affected persons, particularly women and children, and settlement displaced Communities within the shortest time.”
The NBA chairmen also insisted that the lives of Plateau people matter and that no nation can claim to be governed by law while allowing mass killings to persist.
