By TOM CHIAHEMEN, Abuja
An NGO, known as Civil-Military Relief Initiative, has been established by military authorities, through Operation SAFE HAVEN (OPSH), to partner with well-meaning organization to promote peaceful co-existence among the citizens.
Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier-General John Agim, who made this known briefing the press on the activities of Operation 777 at the HQ Operation SAFE HAVEN in Jos Plateau State on Wednesday, explained that the NGO was meant to disabuse the negative mindset and project the goodwill of OPSH to the people as part of its CIMIC activities.
He noted that the HQ OPSH had earlier composed a committee to assess the extent of destructions within deserted villages and the possibility of establishing Strike Force Bases as a prelude to encouraging IDPs to return to their ancestral homes.
The committee under took painstaking tour of 40 villages in which their findings categorized into (a) Villages that were abandoned out of fear of insecurity, (b) Villages that were attacked with some houses partially destroyed and, (c) Villages that were attacked with some houses completely destroyed.
Essentially, OPSH will establish Forward Operation Bases in strategic locations to dominate the general area in order to give confidence to the inhabitants to return home.
According to Brigadier-General Agim, the OPSH was also concluding its contingency plan for the voluntary return of IDPs to their ancestral homes.
“Experiences here in field have shown that some misguided youth are willing tools in the hands of some mischievous elites who use them to perpetrate the worst of heinous crimes on the Plateau. The essence of harnessing the available potentials and energy within the youth population gives HQ OPSH the intuition to organize a youth summit on 19 Dec 18.
“The Theme of the summit is tagged “Re-energizing the Plateau Youth for Positive Development of the Society” and it cut across all youth associations in the 17 LGA of Plateau State. The Summit is aimed at sensitizing the youth population to re-focus their energy into productive ventures that will empower them to take onerous responsibilities of their tomorrow. It will be a practical and interactive summit, to re-invigorate the inert potentials of the youths into constructive ideas in building a virile society. OPSH strongly believes that the end product of the summit will enlighten the youths to have a changed mindset and also pick up the challenges of rebuilding strong and better relationship for peaceful co-existence on the plateau.
He attributed the relative peaceful security environment within the Joint Operation Area (JOA) to the renewed vigour with which troops conduct assigned tasks, adding that there was an appreciable level of aggressive posture through the conduct of raid operations, cordon and search, fighting patrols, show of force leading to the arrest/detention of culprits thereby achieving effective domination of the JOA.
The Defence spokesman also identified the three vexed issues of ethnicity, religion and political affinity as factors that “create a general state of mistrust and animosity often times degenerating into clashes.”
“The insecurity that pervades the environment has also been shaped by acts of criminality due to the activities of cultists and other organized criminal groups,” he added.
According to him, “the communal crisis that occasioned the displacements of some communities in Barkin Ladi, Bokkos, Mangu, and Riyom Local Government Areas in Plateau State following the Jun 18 attack bears significant humanitarian and security concerns. Just as the unfortunate ethno-religious crisis that occurred in Sep/Oct 18 also left scores of casualties including some students of University of Jos in its aftermath. This ethno-religious dimension has further induced fear, apprehension and general state of insecurity across the entire JOA.
“Most worrisome is also the political tension arising from the 10 Oct 18 LGA Elections conducted in 13 out of the 17 LGAs in the State. The Local Elections were characterised by large scale protests and agitations in the aftermath of the announcement of results which could have snowballed into ethno-religion crisis but for the proactive measures adopted to contain the protests.”
He described the unfortunate killing of Maj Gen IM Alkali in Du District of Jos South LGA in Plateau State and the killing of the Agom Adara of Kachia Local Government Area in Kaduna State and subsequent sectarian disturbances, as other preventable developments that shaped the security environment and which necessitated the HQ OPSH to put in measures to avoid spillover effect into Kafanchan as well as other areas within Southern Kaduna.
“The task ahead lies with dislodgement of identified threats in the southern boundary with Taraba State at Wase, Langtang North, Langtang South and Shendam LGAs where armed banditry and other militia groups are terrorising the local inhabitants. Thus, the focus of HQ OPSH regarding successes attained is the total restoration of law and order that would provide an environment of peaceful co-existence as contained in the CDS’ Ops Directives.
“The conduct of Op 777 under OPSH has led to the neutralizing of 10 criminals as well as the arrest of 55 individuals of various crimes ranging from Armed Robbery, Kidnapping, Cattle Rustling, Armed Banditry, Child Trafficking, Drug Peddling, Murder, Gun runners, Impersonation, Sara Suka and Cultist Activities. The suspects arrested were profiled and interrogated, while some have been handed over to relevant prosecuting agencies for further actions, some others are still being interrogated,” Brigadier-general Agidm said.