The Plateau State government has said the steps it had taken would not allow the state to be thrown into crisis again. It however accused some leaders of introducing religion into the crisis for pecuniary gains.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Peace Building, Mr. Timothy Baba Parlong, said the youths, who were usually used to cause mayhem in the state, had embraced truce and were working to sustain the prevailing peace in the state.
He said whenever there was a crisis, “the conclusion drawn by most people is that it is Plateau again but this violence always originates from Jos North, then it spreads to other places. Now, the youths, who are always used to cause this problem, have known one another, both Muslims and Christians. They are now friends and brothers. They have exchanged phone numbers and are working selflessly with my office to making sure that peace is maintained in Jos and Plateau State as a whole. I want you to know that Jos will not burn again.”
Parlong explained that crisis usually occurs when some groups attack Christians or their worship centres, and in anger, the Christians will take to the street and retaliate. This will be followed by reprisals from.
The governor’s aide lamented that in cases involving bomb attacks, sometimes five people might not be killed but in the reprisals that would ensued, more lives would be lost.
He said silent killings thereafter escalate, adding that “if you look at the last bomb blast, there were no reprisals because as some people were agitating, the youths were calling one another, seeking for ways to bring the situation under control. The youths, both Muslims and Christians were talking.”?
On the role of politics and religion in the protracted crisis, Parlong said: “I agree to an extent that politics and religion are involved in this crisis and religion in the first place religion should not have been introduced into it. Religious leaders imported religion into it because they make money out of it; if you demand something and you don’t get it, you go and say they don’t like our religion and then people who have money will dole it and cause trouble.
“The crisis is not religion but you know when they collect this money they have to prove to their paymasters that they are working. So, the only way to do that is to attack worship centres.
Today, they have changed from that tactic. The contention over the ownership of a worship centre in Jos has also been addressed. The people involved have gone to the monarch to settle the matter. With the structure government has put in place, especially by creating the peace-building office, I can confidently say that Jos will not burn again,” Parlong said.