The Conference of United Political Parties (CUPP) has condemned what it has described as genocide on the Plateau.
A statement issued by its National Secretary High Chief Peter Ameh said that CUPP has watched in great shock, utter trepidation and indescribable awe the viral videos making the rounds on the massacre of more than one hundred and fifty innocent souls in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi local government areas of Plateau State.
“We hereby unambiguously and unequivocally condemn the killings as an act of genocide that has been ongoing for more than eight years.
“The pictures are gruesome, harrowing and heart rending. Women slaughtered with their babies strapped to their backs, infants who perhaps knew nothing about the root cause of the animosity between their killers and their communities.
“Men and women who had been striving to eke out a living and may have been looking forward to a merry Christmas and a hopeful new year when their lives will perhaps be better by the promises of a renewed hope of the present administration.
“And now, their lives have been snuffed out in a manner that would be likened to the work of conscienceless and mean-spirited beasts.
“These killings have been going on for a long time, and it seems as if the Federal and Plateau State governments have become defenceless and helpless, and do not have any clue as to how to either nip it in the bud, or put a finality to it. Enough is enough.
“CUPP hereby urges the security agencies to move into an overdrive and either smoke, or fish out those responsible for these killings and their sponsors and promptly bring them to justice, or in the alternative take justice to them, wherever they may be hiding.
“CUPP also recommends that the government of President Ahmed Bola Tinubu should immediately convene or empanel a committee to look at our constitution, which we regard more as a unitary constitution.”
This he said should be with a view to amending it to comform truly with the federalism and empower the component states to have their own internal security be it police, coast guards or vigilante organisations amongst others to enable them effectively secure their local borders.
“Whilst CUPP commiserate with the governor and the people of Plateau State for this tragic but avoidable losses, we also pray to God Almighty to grant perfect peace to the soul of the deceased. May these killings not be repeated again, enough of these bloodshed.”