Plateau Massacre: Ekweremadu Raises Alarm over Escalation of Killings

 Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has expressed concern on the escalation of killings and level of insecurity in the country.

He has therefore warned that more lives may be lost if the country’s security apparatus are not re-organised.

Ekweremadu, while reacting to the recent killings in Plateau State that left scores of people dead, decried the reluctance of Nigerian leaders to tinker with the country’s security structure, despite glaring lapses.

The senator, who spoke in Abuja yesterday after decorating his newly promoted security aides, Mr. Uchenna Igwebuike and Edward Utuh, with their new ranks of Superintendent of Police (SP) and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) respectively, declared: “It is really unfortunate because Nigeria is a country where the leaders have refused to learn from the mistakes and missteps of the past.

“For many years now, some of us have been consistent about the need to decentralise our security architecture; and so long as we are not doing that, we are going to get exactly the same result.”

He expressed deep concern “that innocent people, who voted us into power to protect their lives and property, are losing their lives and their property because we have refused to take the correct steps.

“The sad news is not only that many people have died, but also that more people will die unless we take the right steps, putting the right security architecture in place.

According to him, “It is sad that this is happening, adding that the real tragedy is that this Plateau incident is not going to be last because we refuse to be corrected.”

Ekweremadu also lent his support to the clamour for state police, saying the Plateau State Government would have been able to protect the citizens if it had its own police outfit.

“I appeal to the federal government to have a rethink on the issue of restructuring, especially the ones relevant to the security of lives and property. And the only way to do that is for all of us to sit down and agree to, within a space of the next two or three months, amend the constitution to enable the component units of this country to have their own security architecture, namely the police.

“If the people of Plateau are empowered under the constitution to have their police, then you can place the blame squarely on the governor because he will have the responsibility to recruit sufficient police personnel to protect the people. Right now, the responsibility is that of the federal government. There is little or nothing the governor can do about it,” he further explained.