Plateau State, the beautiful gift of nature to the nation has been violated by incessant bloodshed. The violence, which was interpreted in the past to be religious, political, tribal, economic, or whatever, has evolved into a high-level criminality that frightens lovers of peace.

In recent years, planned mass killings, sacking of communities, ambushes of passersby by armed men, rape of women and girls, feeding their animals with farmers’ crops, destruction of farmlands and other heinous crimes have taken place without any perpetrators being arrested, tried, and punished to deter others. The perpetrators and the beneficiaries of their atrocities now occupy sacked communities, become law to themselves and mine whatever minerals they find beneath the earth while the displaced natives remain homeless.

Almost a decade ago, it was established that 54 communities in the Riyom and Barkin Ladi local government areas had been taken over by the attackers who started their onslaughts in September 2001, and some of the communities have been renamed. This year, it was revealed that 136 communities in five local government areas including Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Bassa, and Mangu have been sacked. Very worrisome is the fact that these displaced people are farmers who are now unable to access their lands for cultivation thereby exacerbating prices of food in the markets.

The State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, and many others are of the opinion that the onslaughts are attempts to wipe out the natives and take over their lands, and such could be mitigated if a State Police is established to support the existing federal security institutions.