By Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
For over two decades Plateau State has been in the limelight for various security challenges ranging from attacks in communities, cattle rustling, destruction of cultivated farms among others.Few weeks to Caleb Mutfwang’s inauguration as governor of the State, renewed attacks became the order of the day in some communities of Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu LGAs.
The attacks were like a welcome onboard for the governor, but he settled in and began to see how the tide can be stemmed.
Things later seem to have gone quite, but sadly, on Christmas eve, 2023, several communities in the aforementioned councils were again attacked by assailants, scores were killed, many displaced, properties destroyed and they lost their means of livelihood.
According to a report by Amnesty International Nigeria, on May 9th, 2024 disclosed that 1,336 people were killed in Plateau State between December 2023 and February 2024.
The organisation also said the figures were basically from Mangu, Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of the State.
It added that 29, 554 people were currently displaced in the three LGAs, within the period under review.
Country Director of the organisation, Isa Sanusi made disclosure in Jos the State Capital, at a ”Photo Exhibition on the Impact of Conflicts and Humanitarian Situations is some Communities of Plateau State Affected by Violent Attacks”.
According to him, the figures were drawn from a thorough finding conducted by his organisation in collaboration with key government agencies.
”Weeks after the deadline Christmas eve attacks on Barkin-Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu, our research team visited some of the affected areas.
”We discovered that between December 2023 and February 2024, 1,336 people were killed, among which are 533 women, 263 children and 540 men.
”29,554 people are displaced from their homes, including 13, 093 children and 16,461 women,”he said.
It would be recalled that the State Government had constituted a resettlement committee to work toward ensuring that all displaced persons in the state return to their ancestral homes.
However, the State Government in its efforts to resettle communities displaced by crisis across the state, has cultivated 6,000 hectares of land for the farming season.
It also provided seeds and similar services to cluster of farmers across the state in other to improve the State’s agricultural yield and reduce hunger to the barest minimum.
At the flagoff of the exercise in June, held in Mangu LGA, Commissioner of Agriculture in the State, Samson Bugama said the intervention tagged: Mechanisation Service Provision Intervention, is targeted at communities affected by unrest and cluster groups across the state.
“Today we will be engaging the field, you can see the tractors are ready and so also all the staff of the Agric Training Service Centre and Marketing Ltd (ASTC) are equally ready.
“The strategy is to be able to see how we can provide mechanisation services to communities that have been displaced in our quest to see how we return people to their livelihoods that the crisis has taken out of the place they understand and do business.
“Governor Caleb Mutfwang in his magnanimity has decided that we engage about six thousand hectares of land, we will see how we can exceed six thousand hectares across the state.
“And we will be providing seeds for those places that have been cultivated; so that we will see how we will bring bumper harvest as we return people to their livelihoods”, he explained.
According to him, “Our priority is to start with communities that are displaced.
“But as much as resources allow us, we will be able to extend to the other communities; but our major goal is the resettlement of displaced communities to their livelihoods.
On the safety of the farmers and their crops, Bugama said, “As you can see now we have the Agro-Rangers with us, and in those communities they have self-help groups that they have setup, that give early warning signals for those kinds situations, that we are going to utilise.
“This time around, we are going to ensure that government’s intervention is not wasted, we are setting a monitoring system, where we use modern technology to check incursions into such communities and we will see how we improve the system moving forward”, he maintained.
“But I must tell you that Governor Caleb Mutfwang is bent on ensuring that our people return back to their livelihoods”, he assured.
Bugama further that, “All these services government is providing are free and the seeds are also going to be free”.
Also speaking, the Managing Director/CEO of ASTC, Dr Susan Bentu, “This intervention is also for farmers in clusters, like women groups, youth, religious among others.
“We will also be cultivating for the youths, the Barc Farm, (a state owned farm in Jos) for the youths.
According to her, “We will be cultivating in the three senatorial zones of the State.
“We are set to change the narrative where agriculture is concern on the Plateau.
“For each of the Senatorial zones, they have their areas of strength, we are going to be cultivating maize and potatoes in Central and Northern zones of the State, while in the Southern zone we will be looking at rice and yam, which are the predominant crops in the zones.
“ASTC is a company principally owned by the Plateau State Government, we are here for the people of the State.
She further stated that ASTC has been rendering services to the the citizenry, not just in the area of mechanised farming, during the raining and dry seasons, but other services attached thereto farmers.
“The green houses we practically see at the backyards of many homes today, is a fallout of ASTC, brought out over thirteen years ago”, she stressed.
She also disclosed that 300 tractors are available for cultivation of land in its three centres, situated in the three senatorial zones of the State.
Areas to benefit from the intervention include; Northern zone- Riyom, Barkin Ladi, Jos South, Jos East, BARC FARMS in Jos North LGAs among others.
In the Central Zone, communities in Mangu, Pankshin and Bokkos LGAs among others.
While in the Southern zone, communities in Wase, Shendam and Quaan Pan LGAs among others.
Today, the aforementioned communities have all been reached, and hopes are high for a better yield come end of the raining season.
