Vice President Kashim Shettima, has said the President Bola Tinubu-led government will not rest until victims and survivors of the attacks on communities in Barkin Ladi and Bokkos Local Government Areas of Plateau State get justice.
With tensions currently high, Shettima also implored Plateau citizens to resist the lure of sectional divisions or the poisonous rhetoric of hatred towards their fellow citizens.
He said violence and bloodshed only persist when citizens take laws into their hands.
“We won’t rest until you access justice and until you are safe, resist the temptation to succumb to sectional divisions or the poisonous rhetoric of hatred,” Shettima said when he visited and commiserated with the affected Plateau communities over the recent killings in Barkin Ladi and Bokkos LGAs.
It was reported that over 150 persons were killed as armed men attacked 12 communities in Bokkos, while at least 17 others died in coordinated attacks on three communities in Barkin Ladi on Christmas Day.
According to survivors’ accounts, the attacks were executed by persons believed to be herders who displaced thousands of settlers and destroyed property worth millions of naira.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, revealed this in a statement he signed on Wednesday titled, ‘We won’t rest until you get justice, VP Shettima assures Plateau communities.’
While urging the people to resist the temptation to succumb to sectional divisions, he said, “This violence persists due to this dangerous practice of treating criminals as ambassadors of their group, where the law is taken into our hands, and where protection fails. But this is not the case now. This is a promise.”
Shettima vowed that the killings on the Plateau and other parts of the country must stop, saying, “Now, please accept our heartfelt condolences. Please accept our deepest apologies. Because we won’t rest until you access justice and until you are safe.”
