THE apex body of Mwaghavul Development Association (MDA), has raised alarm over the senseless and callous killings of its people in unprovoked attacks, describing it as a systematic genocide and deliberate ethnic cleansing of minority tribes in Nigeria.
The National President of Mwaghavul Development Association and the Makaman Panyam, Sir Joseph Gwankat (KSM), raised the alarm while addressing journalists at the World Press Briefing held at the state headquarters of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Jos, the Plateau State capital Friday.
The National President said, “Today, we want the world to know that what is happening to us can best be described as genocide. It is systematic and deliberate ethnic cleansing of minority tribes in Nigeria and we cannot allow this to continue.
“We are calling on our people to arise and defend yourselves, your God-given land and properties with all that you have. We will not leave our land of heritage, the only place we can call our own to anybody. We have no other place to run to.
“The humanitarian situation is overwhelming and pathetic. People are either squatting with relatives, neighbours, in churches and other available public places. They need food, toiletries, medication and places where they can rest their heads.
“There is trauma and psychological depression. There is fear of even their safety where they are taking shelter as the threats spread across the local government and these are beyond the reach of Mwaghavul Development Association and Mangu Local Government Council.
“We are therefore seeking for help from spirited individuals, corporate organisations, NGOs and the international communities to help ameliorate the suffering of our people and what they are going through at the moment. Government should take immediate steps to end these callous killings in the land”, he emphasised.
The apex body has unanimously blamed the Police for demonstrating low capacity and political will to secure minority tribes in Nigeria, stressing that, there was strong need for an institutionalised state policing in all states and communities across Nigeria.
It however, called for the integration of the vigilantes and Hunters Association into the state Operation Rainbow to assist in information gathering and proper protection of people and also build synergy between the community, the people to secure their families.
While calling on the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) to urgently mobilize resources to cushion the suffering of these victims, Gwamkat said, “We wish to encourage our people to remain steadfast, firm and unshakeable in the defence of our land.
“We have never at anytime left our land in the pursuit of any perceived enemies to attack and kill them, but enemies of the state mobilised themselves at regional, national and sub national levels to attack us. We know one another individually as a family and as a community, but we do not know those we saw recently in our communities.
“They are mercenaries brought to grab our ancestral land. They looked strange and moved in group and cannot speak our common Hausa or Mwaghavul languages and you expect us to believe that they are not hired killers squad? As it is now over twenty thousand (20,000) people are displaced and over one hundred and twenty-five (125) people killed with some bodies yet to be recovered”, the President enthused.
