Turaki Hassan, Ahmed Mohammed and Mahmud Lalo
23 December 2008
Eleven women athletes from Jos North Local Government area in Plateau State died yesterday in a ghastly motor accident along Mangu to Jos road.
Governor David Jonah Jang disclosed this yesterday when he received members of the Senate committee investigating the Jos crisis at the Government House. He said "11 young girls of Jos North Local Government went to Mangu for games. On their way back they had a serious accident in which eleven young girls lost their lives and the rest were seriously injured."
Governor Jang prayed for the repose of the souls of the deceased and described it as a tragedy.
He prayed to God to give the families of the deceased the fortitude to bear the irreparable lost.
On the recent Plateau crisis, the Plateau state Governor advised the Senate, while looking into the Jos crisis, to expand the work of the committee to look into similar crises that happened in other parts of the country in order to find lasting solutions to violence.
He said if not because of strict security measures enforced by the government like the restriction of movement, the crisis might have gone beyond Jos North Local Government area.
Jang also lamented the length of time it takes to deploy policemen and soldiers to quell crisis, due to what he called the bureaucracy involved in seeking approval for the deployments. He said, "When the crises started around 1am, before the arrival of the army and the Police it reached up to 10am in the morning because I had to contact Abuja.
Therefore it will be good if the National Assembly's Constitution amendment committee can give power to state governors as the chief security officers of their states to command the military and the Mobile Police Force to quell crisis. If I had the power, the crisis would have been brought under control in good time before it escalated."
Jang also blamed the previous administration in Plateau State for not implementing the whitepaper on the 2001 Jos crisis, saying "this time around, Government will implement it and government will set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the recent Jos crisis and implement the government white paper on it."
Earlier, Chairman of the Senate adhoc committee on the Jos crisis Senator Ndoma Egba told the governor they were in Jos for an on the spot assessment of the situation. He said, "We came with an open mind to see for ourselves, assess and investigate the crisis. After the assessments, we will invite memoranda from stakeholders and well meaning Nigerians on the crisis."
Senator Egba condoled the Plateau state Government and the people of Jos North Local Government over the deaths and losses incurred during the crisis, and advised Nigerians to ensure mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence for the socioeconomic and political development of the country.
Members of the Senate adhoc committee were chosen to represent all the six geopolitical zones of the country. Only five out of the six members accompanied the chairman to Jos yesterday because Senator Ikechukwu Obiora [PDP, Anambra state] who was supposed to represent the south east, had his election was nullified by the courts last Friday.
Other senators in the committee include Senator Ganiyu Solomon (AC Lagos), Senator Mujitaba Mallam (PDP Jigawa), Bala Moha-mmed (ANPP Bauchi) and Senator Suleiman Adukwe (PDP, Nassarawa).
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