Plateau Council Chairman, Gwalson condemns attack on miners in Riyom

Gyang Bere, Jos
The Management Committee Chairman of Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, Hon. Mafeng Gwalson has condemned the clash between Fulani and Miners in Jol community where seven persons were injured.
He applauded the Nigerian Police and personnel of the Operation Safe Haven for their swift action in arresting the situation from degenerating into a major problem.
Hon. Gwalson disclosed this yesterday during an interview with Journalists in Jos and said the Management of the Local Government and security agencies will not allowed crises machants to take the council area to the dark days where killings and destruction of crops and properties was a phenomenon.
“In the past two weeks, we have had people who have intentionally tried to returned the local government back to crisis period by destroying crops in the farm. 
“It has happened in jol, Kwi, Wereng, Sopp and in Tahoss community. Also, on Wednesday, some miners went to the field for mining and were attack by some Fulani youths who told them not to mine that the area is their cattle route.
“As we speak, I don’t have details of what happened but I am happy that the security agencies have gone to secure the communities and have started making arrest.
“I appeal to our people to be calm and support what the security agencies are doing and I am sure that we will get the perpetrators and take them to court to get justice.”
He said efforts has been on ground to recover the about 53 villages that were sacked and the people displaced as a result of the 2001 Jos crises.
“Riyom has always been a peaceful local government until sometimes in 2001 when the effect of Jos crises affected the area. Since then we have not gotten ourselves back with over 53 villages sacked, thousands of people left their homes and a lot of destruction of corps and properties.
“We are working to make the communities a better place to help in retuning those who fled their homes as a result of the violence.
“We are grateful to Governor Simon Lalong because there has been sharp reduction in the violence in the past 5 years. We have sharp reduction in the issues of destruction of lives and properties and cattle rustling because of the committees set up by the Governor.”
Hon. Gwalson said lamented that between 2019 and 2020, there has been an intention efforts by Manchants of crises to bring the local government back to crisis period but we are working round the clock to ensure that doesn’t happen.
“Last week, we had a lot of people whose farms have been grazed mischievously by cows and others where they intentionally used daggers to bring down crops that are almost at the point of harvest.
“We have put in place the machinery to ensure justice is secured for those people. We have called leaders across the divides to ensure those whose crops were destroyed get fair compensation and to ensure that the perpetrators face the consequences.
“As we speak, most of those cases are in court, a big thanks to the Nigeria Police, Operation Safe Haven, vigilante and leaders of the affected communities for their peaceful role.”