The Gbong Gwom Jos and Chairman Plateau State Council of Chiefs and Emirs His Royal Majesty Da Jacob Gyang Buba, has declared that data collated from various traditional rulers in Plateau State depicted that more than 120 villages are now occupied by unknown persons who attacked to forcefully displace the villagers for invasion.
The traditional ruler highlighted that the unfortunate attacks have resulted in the loss of houses, schools, hospitals, farmlands, and even the social lifestyle of the people.
Buba stated this while presenting a paper titled: ‘Plateau What next after the crossroads?’, during a colloquium to mark the 2025 Press Week of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Plateau Council yesterday.
He pointed out that at the advent of kidnapping in the state, it was initially asserted that fleeing bandits from military operations in the North East may be responsible for the criminal act.
He added that as the situation persisted, it became clear that other criminal elements within some Fulani groups, with the collaboration of miscreants within targeted communities or homes, may have now taken over the criminal act as a new venture.
On the indiscriminate mining, the Gbong Gwom mentioned that unskilled mining activities in the state have also attracted various people, some of whom are of questionable character. He argued that the illegalities that took place at those mining sites are unimaginable, apart from the fact that it had added to high rates of consumption of illicit drugs and substances within the mining camps.
The Gbong Gwom Jos, who was represented by the Gwom Rwey Heipang, His Royal Highness Da Paul Tadi-Tok, added that school-age children are now mining, which has contributed to the out-of-school children in the state as part of the displacement of persons from attacks.
He therefore enjoined the state government to remodel and boost activities of the State Security outfit—Operation Rainbow—by developing a legal framework that will collapse all community vanguard and vigilante groups into the outfit, which can be funded through affordable community levies on all residents in the state.
“Through this measure manpower of the outfit will be enhanced, and so also information gathering for early warning will be prompt. Activities of Operation Rainbow, when restructured with modern gadgets such as drones and other motion sensors planted at strategic locations in the prone community, will be enhanced, and criminal acts will be prevented.
