President
of the Senate, David Mark, and the Congress for Progressive Change have
condemned the killing of Senator Gyang Dantong in Barakin-Ladi near
Jos, Plateau State on Sunday.
Dantong, the Majority Leader of the state
House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani, and several other were reportedly
killed when gunmen attacked a mass burial for the victims of Saturday’s
raids by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the area.
The National Chairman, Action Congress of
Nigeria, Chief Bisi Akande, who also lamented the development, described
the orgy of killings in Plateau as “madness”.
Mark said, “The incessant killings of innocent Nigerians must be stopped.
“We must do everything within the ambit of
our laws to ensure that this type of murderous acts is stopped. As a
nation, we must just rise against those who are determined to return us
to a state of nature where life had little or no value.”
The Senate President added, “(Dantong was) a
patriotic parliamentarian, quintessential gentleman and committed
nationalist, who was killed in active service to his fatherland.”
He called on the security agencies to bring the perpetrators of the gruesome deaths to justice.
The CPC National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, decried the insecurity in the country.
He said, “The insecurity in the land has
now assumed a monstrous, proportion. The residents of these ravaged
villages have asked, ‘where are the soldiers that should protect us?”
Akande, who spoke through his media aide, Mr Lani Baderinwa, on Sunday, described the latest killings in Jos as preventable.
He said, “It is a very sad development.
Government should have prevented it. Plateau has been in this kind of
situation for more than three years.
“All we get is, ‘We are on top of the
situation,’ and after that we get more devastating bombings. The Federal
Government should stop this madness and save Nigeria.
“We must not lose sight of the comment by
the former National Security Adviser, Gen Azazi Owoye (retd.), who said
the Peoples Democratic Party was responsible violence in the polity.”
When our correspondent contacted the Head
in Information at the Defence Headquarters, Col. Mohammed Yerima, he
said he was not aware of the killing of the Senator.
He said the Defence Headquarters had yet to get official briefing on the new dimension to the Plateau crisis.
He said, “Honestly, we have not heard of
this development; the Defence Headquarters have not received any
briefing on this incident.
“I will advise you to wait till Monday, when the headquarters is expected to have its briefing.”
Meanwhile, spokesman for the Senate,
Eyinnanya Abaribe, confirmed that Dantong was killed while attending a
mass burial for those who were killed in earlier attacks also in the
area.
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