Plateau State governor, Caleb Mutfwang, on Thursday, disclosed that at least 12,000 persons have been killed in the state by rampaging bandits. According to him, about 420 communities were attacked, and countless livelihoods were destroyed, in a period spanning 2001 and May 2025.
Mutfwang, who stated this in Jos, the state capital, on Thursday, while declaring open the North Central Zonal Public Hearing on National Security, organised by the Senate ad-hoc Committee, urged Nigerians to stop pointing fingers and comparing who’s lost more lives across religious and ethnic divides. He said: “It is time to join hands and unite.
“The public hearing of the Senate Committee on national security, this hearing could not have come at a better time than now, given the ongoing national conversation on the unacceptable levels of insecurity in our great country.
“We in Plateau State have had our fair share of these terrible occurrences, which have left a trail of death and destruction.
“As a country, Nigeria is forced to come to terms with the realities of insurgency and terror in terms of the dynamics of their emergence and changing patterns representing the simple, most potent threat to both human and national security in Nigeria.”
Mutfwang was represented by the Deputy Governor of the State, Mrs Josephine Piyo. He added that: “The scale, complexity, and persistence of insecurity across Plateau State is quite evident to the extent that about 420 communities were attacked, with nearly 12,000 lives lost and countless livelihoods destroyed, between 2001 and May, 2025.
“The humanitarian, economic, and social tone is profound. The evidence reveals that most of the deadly attacks were neither random nor isolated, but appear deliberate, coordinated, and sustained by multiple factors, pursuing economic, territorial, religious, and political agendas.”
“The roots of infiltration, the patterns of destruction and the strategies of occupation all seem to point to a broader agenda of destabilization, requiring decisive and multi-dimensional responses”, he explained.
“In addition, a common feature of the plight of rural communities in Plateau state is the phenomenon of land displacement and land grabbing, resulting in loss of lives, livelihoods, land and destruction of cultures. Criminal groups continue to exploit mining sites using proceeds to finance their operations with arms and drugs.
“The Plateau State Government has attempted to curb this menace through measures like mining bans, but challenges remain due to the deep-rooted links between illegal mining and financing criminal activities”, the governor decried.
“Therefore, the initiative of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to organise this public hearing on security is a welcome development.
Mutfwang maintained that the initiative by the Senate, among others will contribute immensely in finding lasting solutions to “this national calamity that has befallen us”. “It is time to stop pointing fingers and compare who’s lost more lives across religious and ethnic divides. It is time to join hands and unite.
“I call on all stakeholders to make very honest and useful contributions that will return Plateau State and Nigeria to the path of unity and prosperity”, the governor admonished.
Earlier in his welcome remarks, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, said, “This public hearing has been organised as instrumental level of inclusivity to gauge stakeholders opinions on how best to understand and collectively address the complex security threats confronting our nation.
“This level of engagement is needed at this point in our nation, because we traverse the sprawling urban landscapes from vast hinterlands of Nigeria, the specter of insecurity has become so pervasive and debilitating, where national headlines have been inundated with stories of protracted conflicts, insurgency in the northeast, rising speed of militancy in the Niger Delta, trail of farmer header, clashes, communal clashes, kidnapping, terrorism and destruction of farmlands in the northwest, North Central and across other parts of the country”, he explained.
According to him, “This exercise which we are embarking upon here today is an attestation and affirmation of the seriousness and doggedness that the national assembly attached to its constitutional role of safeguarding the lives, property, peace, progress and prosperity of all Nigerians through lawmaking and other appropriate legislative measures in the overall interest and well being of the entire citizenry of the country”.
