There was high presence of riot policemen as well as increased security checkpoints in Jos and Bukuru metropolis on Sunday.

Most churches witnessed low turnout as the increased security presence and extra search created panic among residents.

Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe, told our correspondent that the police were not leaving anything to chance in the bid to ensure that terrorists fleeing from Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states, did not find a safe haven in Plateau.

“We are beefing up security and all the security agencies in Plateau are cooperating to ensure that the state is kept safe. You know that a state of emergency was declared in three states and Plateau escaped because intelligence report had indicated that the state was relatively safe,” Olakpe said.

The commissioner said he was also cooperating with officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service to secure the borders and ensure that illegal immigrants did not take advantage of the situation to enter the state.

Meanwhile, Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang said he would continue to support President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure permanent peace in the country.

Jang stated this in an interview with journalists at the Yakubu Gowon Airport, Haipang, Jos, shortly after his arrival from an overseas trip.

Jang assured the residents that security agencies in the state were capable of keeping the state safe from any type of insurgency and urged the people to cooperate with the security agencies.

He said the President, as the chief security officer of the country, must have had all the security reports before declaring a state of emergency in the three states.

The governor said, “The President knows better because he is the Chief Security Officer of the nation. What we need to do is to support everything that he is doing so that we can bring total peace to our nation.

“The state of emergency, like we had in some local government areas in the country, is to ensure that the military personnel are given the free hand to be able to bring total peace.

“We hope what the President has done will now bring total peace to Nigeria and all the states so that the desire dividends of democracy are provided to Nigerians”

-Punch

The state commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe, who disclosed this in his office while briefing journalists, said the force made the discovery following a tip-off by concerned members of the public, adding that the police would soon embark on a house-to-house search for arms where attacks and counter-attacks have become prevalent.

He lamented that too many arms had found their way into the hands of the youths in the state, and that such portents dangers to residents if nothing was done about it.

The police boss called on the state and local government administrations to partner the police by providing vehicles and other logistics support to help fight the growing security challenges in some parts of the state.

Olakpe also attributed the current onslaughts in some communities on the outskirts of Jos to the continuous disagreements between farmers and herdsmen on Grazing areas and farmland.

Meanwhile, Senator representing Plateau-North in the National Assembly, Gyang Pwajok, has expressed concern over the continuous attacks in his constituency, which he said had inflicted psychological trauma on his people.

Pwajok was at the headquarters of the Special Task Force (STF) in Jos, where he said the mood of the victims of these attacks reflects a state of helplessness and gives the impression that the attackers were invisible.

Decrying the increasing number of deaths being recorded in these communities, Pwajok said it was the right of affected communities to enjoy protection.
He therefore urged the security agents to do more to bring the heinous crime to an end.
-ThisDay

FRESH crises in different parts of Plateau State have resulted in the death of 11 persons and the burning of houses.

After a resumed attack on Wase Tofa village, four bodies of the victims were found Monday floating on River Wase.

According to an eyewitness, Dauda John, “four people were picked up from Wase River today. The gunmen came and started firing into the air to drive the people from their houses. That was how it all happened.”

Plateau State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, the Commander of the Special Task Force (STF), Major-General Henry Ayoola and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Olakpe, were in Wase on Friday last week for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the council.

That last week attack on Wase left about 25 people dead but Abraham denied the casualty figure, saying that it was 18.

Also on Friday night, three persons were reported killed in Kanana village in Langtang South by unidentified gunmen in their resumed hostilities.

It was learnt that unknown gunmen on Friday night at Turaki Ward in Langtang South stormed the area and sacked the village killing a woman and her daughter but the husband escaped unhurt. The gunmen carted away his cows.

The sleeping and isolated Maza Ward in Jos North Local Council was also attacked on Friday night by unidentified gunmen who killed two harmless indigenes of the area. Reports say that the gunmen came in and started shooting indiscriminately and two people eventually fell to their bullets.

It was further learnt that the villagers deserted their homes and farmlands and took refuge in the nearby bush and hills. According to an eyewitness from Maza, “You know at that time there was a heavy rainfall in Maza when the gunmen came. They started shooting so that people could come out from their huts and houses. There were no security men around to rescue us.

“Soldiers of the STF who were initially stationed in this area were withdrawn a week earlier before this incident happened. Maza is situated in a valley and people don’t even know that something like that exists. No access road except that the government wants to open one road to link Maza to the town in Jos.

“The security people had been here for quite a long time now. But there seemed be no work for them because the place is quiet. So, they were withdrawn, as peace seemed to reign here. Not more than one week that they were withdrawn, the gunmen came shooting and people had to abandon their homes for the hills inside the heavy rain. People stayed in the bush in the rain.”

The Spokesman of the Special Task Force, Capt. Salisu Ibrahim Mustapha, confirmed that there was an attack in Tofa along Wase, “where a man was ambushed and this resulted in a reprisal attack and many houses were burnt.”

But Mustapha said that normalcy had returned while the situation was being closely monitored.

On Maza attack, Mustapha said that “what happened there was not an attack but rituals being carried out by the hunters there. People heard gunshots especially during these times of insecurity and they started running helter-skelter. I am not aware that people were killed in the process.”

Abraham had earlier identified criminality as the major factor responsible for the recent breakdown of violence and hostility in some parts of the state particularly in Wase, Kanam, Langtang North and Langtang South axis.

The commissioner who described the talks he had with the traditional rulers, security chiefs and authorities of Kanam, Wase, Langtang North and Langtang South as frank and comprehensive, added that they focused on analysing the factors that led to the intensification of the violence in those areas as well as the tension they had been witnessing.

But the Centre for Advocacy of Justice and Rights, a Jos-based non-governmental organisation, lamented that for more than a decade now, the state had suffered a series of attacks such as ethno-religious crises leading to a huge loss of lives and property.

The Programme Manager of the centre, Mr. Adeniran Joseph, said that this pointed to the fact that there would be hunger in the state, increase in poverty, high rate of crime and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV).

“Also, the democratic structure of the state and the dividends of democracy may once more be lost, ” he said.

-Guardian

The police in Jos confirmed the incident but said they had no details yet.

Residents who woke up to the ugly sight, said that the crime took place around 1:00 a.m. and that the victim could not be identified.

They said, however, that the area had a lot of drinking spots that operated late into the night and that the assailants could have hidden under that to carryout the crime.

The corpse had no visible mark or injury an indication that the assailants had strangled her before plucking out her eyes and tongue.

The corpse, dumped by the riverside was neatly dressed in a blue jean trousers and T-shirt at the time of discovery before security operatives took it away at about 8:45 a.m.

The murder threw Twanchit residents into pensive mood as most of the people who trooped to the scene to see the ugly sight left weeping.

Confirming the incident, Mr Adigun Salau, the Police Public Relations Officer, said the command took notice of the incident but that details were still sketchy.

He said, however, that investigation had commenced.

A resident, Rev. Joseph Bot of the Plateau Peace Movement International, said that the incident took the residents by surprise.

He said that the nature of the killing indicated that it was for ritual purposes but said that other factors could be involved.

Bot advised parents, to monitor the movement of their children, especially young ladies, who kept late nights.

“We have a lot of drinking joints in the area. I have a strong feeling that the crises in Jos has given birth to a lot of hatred, poverty and lack of trust among the people.

“I notice that a lot of young ladies stay late in these drinking joints, a trend which is dangerous. I wonder whether they have parents.

“It is unfortunate she has to pay the price, girls should curtail their movements.

“Whatever they cannot do in the daytime they should not use the night time to do it because in Plateau State the times are dangerous.”

“Immediately I saw what happened, I called the SSS while some other persons called the police.

“It is a big trauma, in this area; anytime you come out in the night you see a lot of girls at late hours,” Bot stated. (NAN)

Via Vanguard

Mr. President, not again, as several citizens with many of them sleeping when they were reportedly killed during the dawn of the night, as in what occurred a few days ago in the Barkin Ladi area of Jos, Plateau State.

This is not the first time as the world has heard, dating back to 2010 about the deadly night and day terror and killings around Jos.

Mr. President, often one hears about the beautiful name of Joint Task Force (JTF), made up of police and the military that are reportedly patrolling some areas of Jos. But here is the problem. This is not real community patrolling as they are not deeply in the rural communities and the remote corners were the village inhabitants live and are killing each other.

Mr. President, don’t you expect that the combined force of police, soldiers and other law enforcement agents ought to be present in these villages at both day and night time, and at the right time?

Also, regardless of whether the violence is as a result of scrambling for land or cattle, village power, or fighting over ethnic or religious differences, or poverty; one thing is clear there is no full or active security force on the premise to help prevent both sides from engaging in the ongoing horrendous killing in the villages.

Why the leaders of the police and military will not make their men and women to be physically present in these known attack areas is beyond common sense understanding.

Unless something sensible is done we will again lose more lives in the coming months and years, and remain the laughing stock among democratic nations.

Real community policing means active partnership with the villagers, effectively watching over them, solving their social problems, enabling them with security and public safety tips, culturally responding to their concerns, and advocating for them.

Community policing means being around the potential victims at the right time, at the right place and having the right weapons and tools at the point where violence is about to occur or is occurring.
Community policing means being proactive to the people’s needs, and it is not in form of the reactive manner we always see, whereby our soldiers and police begin running into the area of fire and violence after it has long started or almost ended.

A line of community policing with a full implementation of a comprehensive policy is characterized by a long-term, proactive and focused approach. Giving what we already know about the nature of this violence, a non-stop-JTF presence and activities could bring reasonable control of the violence and meet the intervention needs of the people, as well as reach the targeted control over the troubled areas.
Community policing means not distancing JTF members from the people in need who could be able to provide valuable intelligence and the necessary information as long as there is some degree of trust and positive relationship between the people and the taskforce based community patrollers.

Community policing means going beyond just being illusive in terms of name but being active with full blown acts like foot-patrol, neighborhood presence, and helping to improve the quality of life of the people.

Mr. President, if the respective chiefs of our security agencies can only form a real and non-artificial rapport with each other, such relationship could extend to the rank and file, to the supervisors, and certainly to the communities in need.

Community policing work mostly work well in a non-rigid chain of command so as to enable free flow of information, and secure full interaction between all levels of players, in order to expand the spans of quick response.

Mr. President, the truth is that it is time for the Nigerian security forces, the Nigeria police especially to become more decentralized, to become more of an open system, so as to allow for swift and better deployment of officers in targeted communities. By doing this we will allow for quick as well as for effective response to the people.
In the absence of real community policing the quality of actions by the security agents will continue to be reactive in style and action, that means, they will continue to come into the areas of attack after most of villages have been raided, properties fully burnt down, and the killings have completed and the attackers have escaped.