Days after Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku said the Buhari administration and the military were aware of security threats as well as soldiers’ misconduct but chose to do nothing, the state has again berated the federal government.
Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Dan Bala Abu at the weekend told journalists that although there was relative peace, the state government did not have confidence in the security apparatus of the national government.
He said that the people were continually losing faith in the ability of the present crop of security personnel deployed in the state to conduct their affairs in a just and equitable manner.
Abu insisted that the people were not satisfied with the way the military posted to quell the security crisis in Taraba state were harassing them and even collecting their kitchen knives while attackers wielding sophisticated weapons like AK-47 were allowed to go on a killing spree.
“What we are saying is that even the relative peace we are enjoying now, we still do not have confidence in the military.
“We are saying that we have lost confidence in the military because nothing has been done to all our complaints that people were being disarmed and that the military is discriminating in the way they do it.
“They collect their kitchen knives from them while they leave the other persons who are carrying AK-47. So where is the justice in this matter? That’s why we are saying that we have lost confidence.
“We have the right to say that the people that were posted to restore peace are not doing what is expected of them, that they are biased. It is left for them to find out what is wrong and do what they have to do to correct the wrongs being done,” he said.
It would be recalled that retired General TY Danjuma, a Taraba indigene, had advised Nigerians to defend themselves before killer herdsmen wipe them out.
Danjuma, who spoke last Saturday at the maiden convocation ceremony of Taraba State University in Jalingo, the capital, called on the people to rise against “ethnic cleansing”.
“You must rise to protect yourselves from these people, if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die.
“This ethnic cleansing must stop in Taraba, and it must stop in Nigeria,” Danjuma warned.
