From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

 

Impunity has been identified as the cause of the endless cycle of attacks and reprisal attacks in Plateau State.

The National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) stated that the inability of the government to apprehend and punish those indicted for killings have fuelled the retaliatory attacks in the state.

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NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje in a statement titled, “Carnage at Rubuka- Another saga of Impunity” on behalf of the association, condemned the killing of travellers at Rubuka noting that it represented another dangerous dimension to the deteriorating security situation in the country.

“At the heart of the orgy of attacks and reprisal attacks in Plateau State is an entrenched culture of impunity. For so long, killings have gone largely unpunished. Criminal elements with links to powerbrokers, acting under the motivation of ethnic and religious biases, have continually unleashed death and wanton destruction without any regard for either morality or the laws of the land. The apparent inability of the government to invoke the full wrath of the law on these merchants of violence and agents of death has further emboldened the cycles of lethal retaliatory violence,” he said.

While admitting that Governor Simeon Lalong has worked to build peace in the state and defuse the atmosphere of mutual distrust in the state, Owoaje noted if not handled with dispassionate dispatch, the Rubuka incident has the potential to escalate tension and trigger another round of retributive attacks in the state.