Governor of Plateau state, Caleb Muftwang, believes some politicians in the state need to be questioned over the recurring crisis in the state.
“Unfortunately, there have been links that suggest that some of our politicians would have questions to answer about some of these insurgencies because they have been generously linked with some of the perpetrators of the crisis.
“The purveyors of these insurgencies continue to make such statements – unguarded statements that incite these criminalities and begin to make our people distrust themselves,” Muftwang said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.
The governor stated that the state government has learned that outside forces are attempting to undermine the stability of the state.
Despite the escalating insurgencies, Muftwang said that his government has been able to tackle the problem of insecurity head-on.
“We have been able to deploy all kinetic and non-kinetic solutions to the security challenge. What we have discovered is that while there are external forces that are bent on destabilizing the Plateau. We also need to do a lot to reassure the citizenry that we are going to be a government of equity, and justice that believes in inclusivity. These are the things that we have tried to deploy.
He pointed out that there has been continued intra- and intercommunity cooperation in terms of vigilance, promising that if the state keeps moving in this direction, Plateau would once again serve as a haven for peace and tourism.
“Let me say it emphatically for the whole world to hear and know that there is no ethnic nationality on the plateau fighting another ethnic nationality.
“What we have had is shared criminality, what we have had is genocide, and what we have had are external elements brought in to be able to unleash terror on our people.
The perpetrators, in the governor’s opinion, are those who occasionally exploit tribal and religious issues to gain political traction because they are aware of the decline in their fortunes.
“Majorly, what we are dealing with is criminality and I am sure the federal security agencies are also looking at this clearly.
“These are elements we describe as miscreants and people who lack honour. We will continue to go after them, we will track and make sure that they do not become a nuisance to our people,” he said.
In a statewide broadcast earlier in August, Muftwang had similarly described perpetrators of crisis as miscreants mistaken for honourable.