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Plateau Attacks: Killer Herdsmen Are Boko Haram In Disguise – Rev. Para-Mallam

Published

6 years ago

July 10, 2018

Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam has said the killer herdsmen brutally killing innocent people across the country are Boko Haram in disguise.
The Regional Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), Reverend Gideon Para-Mallam has told Daily Post that killer herdsmen are Boko Haram in disguise.

He raised alarm over the circle of violence and bloodshed being perpetuated by suspected herdsmen.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST in Jos against the backdrop of the violence in parts of Plateau state which culminated in the death of over 200 people, he urged government to take drastic measures to arrest the killers if it wants the country to remain an indivisible nation beyond 2019.

The cleric said, “What happened in Plateau State over a fortnight ago is sad. It is disappointing that the circle of violence and bloodshed has been visited again on the peaceful people of Plateau.

“Plateau State has become not just a killing field through the years, but now a land flowing with rivers of blood. This is history repeating itself.

“In 2010, Dogo Na-Hauwa (Dyemburuk) massacre took place. Over 500 people were killed in a single day, and this has been a pattern that has continued between 2010 through now.

“Almost every time somebody is killed in the villages, not one village, not two villages, three villages; in fact in the recent attacks, eleven villages were attacked almost simultaneously over a prolong period of days. Why is this so? Why?” he asked.

Para-Mallam, who is the founder of the Citizens Monitoring Group, which works with Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, continued, “We need to understand these killings. This is another Boko Haram in disguise, Fulani herdsmen are Boko Haram in disguise.

“The same Fulani people that had been living peacefully with the farmers, suddenly has changed from using sticks to tend their cows, to rear their cows, all of a sudden going to farmlands, killing farmers, surrounding whole villages, wiping out Christian farmers, killing their wives, children, burning their homes, displacing them; very clearly an agenda is emerging”, he maintained.

“Why Jos? For the simple reason that these attacks began in Jos, spread to other parts of Nigeria, particularly the Middle-belt , and its now coming back to Jos with mass horrible killings in large numbers are taking place, a dozen villages wiped out within days.

“It’s a pointer, it’s a reality. Because Jos is the epicenter of Christianity, Plateau State is the epicenter of Christianity in the North, in the Middle-belt and significantly in Nigeria. Jos is a miniature Nigeria.

“And when you begin to kill people in the rural areas and also in the cities, it’s a pointer that ethnic cleansing is taking place. And unless something is done, Christianity, Christians in Nigeria will become history”, he warned.

“Also, we need to understand that all these attacks and killings, depopulation, decimation of Christians and ethnic nationalities in the Middle-belt areas, point to something in 2019, the coming elections.

“Now, in 2015, we were told that the security situation can only be handled by the current APC government, and particularly by the military strongman, though retired, General Muhammadu Buhari. But Buhari came with a promise to silence Boko Haram. Right now, we are not just dealing with Boko Haram, but now we are having two hydra-headed demons, who are killers in our midst – Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen”, he lamented.

“And so when you have Plateau destabilized with these killings- Benue, Adamawa, Taraba, Southern Kaduna all of these areas, all we keep getting is a fire brigade approach by government to stop this crisis, and the killings are persisting, how can elections, peaceful elections be possible in 2019?

“Something needs to be done to arrest these killers, if Nigeria is to remain a united, one indivisible country”, Para-Mallam stressed.