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'Plateau Crises Claimed 54,000 Lives'

This Day (Lagos)
NEWS
October 7, 2004
Posted to the web October 7, 2004

By Funmi Peter-Omale
Jos
About 53,787 persons lost their lives in the various crises that engulfed
Plateau State before President Olusegun Obasanjo proclaimed emergency rule on
the state on May 17.
A breakdown of the casualty figure revealed that 18,931 men, 17,397 women and
17,459 children allegedly lost their lives in the spate of crises in the state
beginning with the September 7, 2001 ethno-religious carnage.
Addressing pressmen in Jos yesterday, the Special Adviser to the State
Administrator on Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Mr. Thomas Kangnaan disclosed
that the Committee's findings revealed that 25,129 houses, 865 shops and 1,326
cattles among others were also lost during the crises.
According to him, public institutions like primary and secondary schools
estimated at over N130 million were destroyed, adding that public health
facilities yet to be estimated were destroyed within the same period.
Kangaan explained that government was making the figures and the report public
in order for the citizens and the general public to be aware of the progress
made so far by the committee in identifying displaced persons, determine how
best to rehabilitate them as well as highlight the problems being encountered
by government and the displaced persons in achieving the objectives.
While noting that procurement and distribution of relief materials was a
continuous exercise, the Special Adviser, stated that the state government has
extended olive branch to displaced persons in neighbouring Bauchi, Taraba and
Nasarawa states. He added that the Sole Administrator, Maj Gen. Chris Alli
(rtd), has personally paid several visits to the displaced persons to plead
with them to return to the state.
Government, he said, was appealing to the displaced persons and other citizens
of the state to embrace peace especially for those who had fled the state to
return. He said the prevailing peace in the state has enlivened and boosted
economic activities that had been in the doldrums before now.
Series of religious cum ethnic violence hit Southern Plateau between 2001 and
this year in which many people were murdered, some displaced and properties
worth millions of naira destroyed.
The crisis was already extending to some neighbouring states like Bauchi, Kano
and Nasarawa before President Obasanjo's emergency rule checkmated the descent.
As a result of the emergency rule declaration, Governor Joshua Dariye, his
deputy and members of the State House of Assembly were suspended from office
for six months in the first instance.

   

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