Senate, CPC, Akande condemn lawmakers’ killing

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.