Former Plateau state governor, David Jonah Jang, has lambasted Governor, Simon Lalong, over his comments on killings in Benue state.
Jang also condemned Lalong for attacking Governor Samuel Ortom over the anti-grazing law which became effective November 1, 2017.
Comrade Clinton Garuba, Jang’s media aide in a statement on Friday, said it was sad that Lalong who “accidentally stumbled on power” will continue on the path of infamy at the detriment of the very people who he swore an oath to protect.
”At a time when the mood of the nation, nay, the states that have continued to suffer decapitation at the hands of marauding killer herdsmen should be sober, it is unfortunate that some one of Governor Lalong’s standing will utter words that will be an insult on the sensitivity of the people, especially of Benue State.
”This is unfortunate not only coming from the Governor but on a day when the Government and people of Benue State held a mass burial for Hapless women and children who were murdered on the first day of the Year, ordinarily a day of jubilation.
While the people of Benue were at the funeral of their lost brethren, Lalong, in his usual manner was playing to the gallery in Abuja with a view to scurrying cheap political points and portray himself as an insider of the Buhari administration.
At times when, one lacks what to say or would say what is irrelevant, especially in calming frayed nerves, silence become golden. When people who trot around as leaders cannot conduct themselves in that manner, it is only a pointer to the fact that they were never prepared at all for leadership.
”Thankfully, the days and months ahead leads us to another electioneering period and with the wisdom Nigerians now have, having suffered all kinds of hardship including escalating insecurity occasioned by herdsmen, it is only a matter of time before the right people will be put in the right places of authority.
”It is unfortunate that Plateau State which has suffered the brunt of the killer herdsmen in the modern-day Nigeria, was left out of a meeting to discuss an issue as important as finding lasting solutions to the farmer/herdsmen clashes a prominent feature in the North Central geopolitical zone. When Governors of state s such as Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba and Benue were invited and participated at that meeting, Plateau which should be chief on the list was conspicuously missing.
”Alas! The Governor of Plateau State was not even in the country and on return one would have expected loud protest by the Governor but he was in Abuja, perhaps discussing a role in the 2019 re-election project.
”That Governor Lalong had the temerity to insinuate that the Governor of Benue State Governor is responsible for the massacre of his people by implementing a people-oriented law to safeguard his people, is the height of wickedness. If anything, the Governor of Benue State deserves the condolences from Governor Lalong and not those comment attributed to him.
”For this reason, the only assuaging thing for Gov. Lalong to do at the moment is to tender an unreserved apology to the Government and people of Benue State for those unnecessary and unsavory comments, which at best could be described as an insult.
”Governance is not for the lilly livered and if people like Gov. Ortom has decided to work in the best interest of his people, those who cannot should look from a distance without trying to tarnish the image of those 1determined to protect those who elected them.
Today’s men of power must recognise that power is transient and that posterity which judge them for their actions or inactions. Generations yet unborn will hear of how people looked the other way as their kinsmen were massacred while they pandered to the powers that be in pursuit of political relevance.
”On the Plateau, countless number of people have been murdered in the last couple of months in Bassa, Riyom, Jol, etc, one wonders therefore where the Governor resides that he speaks so much about peace in the State. The much talked about peace of the Governor as we know and has been on the altar of acceptance of the policies that will naturally dispossess the people of the ancestral lands and increase pitch a section of the populace the people against one another.
”Plateau people, especially of the Northern zone which Senator Jonah Jang represents say NO to grazing reserves and will not accept the confiscation of their ancestral land for the purpose of creating reserves, colonies or whatever they may be called.
”Gov. Lalong speaks for himself, as far as the people of Plateau North Senatorial zone are concerned. We have already suffered too much loss in the hands of the killer herdsmen to allow an entrenchment of their feudalistic and genocidal tendencies. If the Governor claims to have people already donating lands for the purpose of grazing reserves or cattle colonies, I wonder who these people are and brings home ant-infested wood and refuses to court the visit of lizards.
”The vehemence with which Plateau people reject any policy that undermines the peace for which they are known is as potent today as it will always be. Governor Lalong is on his own and alone this path of self-destruct which he has chosen.
”Lalong is a downward ride and has descended so low to the extent that he has lost his humanity, if he can’t console the Government and people of Benue State, then, his silence at this time is golden.
”To regain his humanity, it is only humanly possible that he apologises to the Government and people of Benue State.”
