WE NEED STATE POLICE TO END PLATEAU CRISIS MANGU LOCAL GOVERNMENT CHAIRMAN DECLARES AT SUMMIT

JOS, Plateau State — The Executive Chairman of Mangu Local Government Council, Hon. Emmanuel Bala Molpun, says Nigeria’s security crisis, especially in Plateau State and the Middle Belt, can be “easily tackled through legislation” if the country is serious about upholding the rule of law.

Speaking on the sidelines of the House of Representatives Adhoc Committee’s conference on insecurity in Plateau State on Monday, Molpun described the event as “quite significant” because it shows the House of Representatives “has decided to take the security situation in the states very, very seriously and is truly committed to ensuring” lasting solutions are found.

Molpun commended the Adhoc Committee for convening the dialogue “with a view to provoke special discussions on security in Plateau State.”

“We all know that Plateau State has gone through a lot in terms of insecurity.

 The insecurity has persisted for a very, very long time,” he said. 

“Today, the House of Representatives, through its adhoc committee, is going around to unbundl the causes of the crisis with a view to providing lasting solutions to the problems. And I think this is a lot of work.”

He argued that many of Plateau’s problems “can be resolved through proper legislation,” adding that the Committee’s outreach also signals that “the federal government is taking very serious steps to ending the crisis.”

Linking democracy to legal order, the Mangu chairman insisted that enforcement is as critical as enactment.

“Since Nigeria operates a democracy, we should also know that the beauty of every democracy is in the rule of law,” Molpun stated. 

“Once there is proper legislation, once there are laws, and once there is commitment to ensuring that the laws are executed, there is a need to make insecurity a thing of the past.”

“It is either we pursue that honestly or the country continues to tilt towards a failed state, which I think nobody would want,” he warned.

Molpun was emphatic that insecurity tied to pastoral movements requires urgent legislative action, citing environmental pressure as a driver of conflict.

“As global warming continues to strike us, issues of desertification from northern Nigeria to as far as Morocco — if you go through, you discover there is desert everywhere,” he noted. “So if we don’t make the laws that will protect us in Nigeria, our people will be in distress.”

He specifically called for laws around grazing and livestock management “to ensure that the problem is permanently solved.”

“When you allow open grazing, allow the movement from North Africa to Nigeria, even to the southern part of Nigeria, in compliance with some laws, native authority laws, I believe that it will be difficult for us to find solutions to this problem,” Molpun said. “Because as people move from the northern part of Africa to graze, in maybe greener pastures in the Middle Belt of Nigeria or the southern part of Nigeria, criminals are always with them, and then they will continue to unleash terror on us.”

He added that the absence of regulation encourages settlement by armed elements: “When they find that there are better places here, there is a tendency for them to want to stay.”

“So I think it is very necessary that government should look at that area very, very well in order to protect our heritage, so that this problem can be solved once and for all,” he concluded.

The House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Insecurity in Plateau State convened Monday’s multi-stakeholder dialogue themed _“Restoring Stability and Unity: A Multi-Stakeholder Special Dialogue/Security Conference on Security in Plateau State and Beyond.”

 The Committee has been touring flashpoints across the state, engaging traditional rulers, security agencies, victims, and local leaders to identify root causes and recommend legislative interventions.

Mangu LGA, which Molpun chairs, has been one of the epicenters of recent attacks in Plateau State.