The Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, has condemned the tragic incident that led to the loss of 23 travellers around Gada Biyu in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.
The Forum said the killing had all the colorations of several others like it, where locals, in particular parts of the country, have become inhospitable and unwelcoming to other Nigerians, living in, or passing through their domains.
A statement by the Head, Media and Public Affairs of the Forum, Abdulrazaque Bello- Barkindo, said the actions of Nigeria’s once peaceful locals, which have resulted in unwarranted and needless deaths, diminish Nigerians as a people and pulls the country down to the deepest recesses of the absence of civilization.
The action, he said, also causes all kinds of reprisal killings, and injurious interactions, that do nobody any good.
The Forum views with extreme disgust, the horrible and thoughtless loss of precious lives, and declares unequivocally, that it must stop forthwith.
Members of the Forum also called on Nigeria’s security organisations, to fish out all those involved, to face the full wrath of the law, to serve as a deterrent to those who are contemplating similar action.
The members insisted that no human life deserves to be wasted on any ground, be it religious or ethnic, or even on the frivolous altar of mistaken identity, and hope that Nigerians will desist from taking the law into their own hands so that the country can once again become a safe place for us all.
The Governors’ Forum called on all aggrieved ethnic nationalities and their militia, to avoid needless killings of this nature, by always seeking law enforcement assistance and legal redress.