The Plateau State Government has said it would not succumb to blackmail and intimidation in its determination to develop the state.
The government, in a statement on Tuesday, was reacting to attacks on its officials working to implement the Jos City Renewal Policy of the Governor Governor Mutfwang’s administration
The PUNCH reports that during the attacks in the Bukuru community of the Jos South Local Government Area of the state, on Monday, one person was killed, while several properties, including cars and buildings, were set ablaze by the hoodlums.
Before the Bukuru incident, a police officer attached to the enforcement team of the Jos Metropolitan Development Board was shot dead when the task force officials working to clear the streets of trading clashed with hoodlums at the Jos Terminus Market.
Also, a section of transporters and other trade unions, under the auspices of the Plateau State Joint Transport, Traders and Marketers Association, equally declared a sit-at-home across the state, in a bid to voice out their rejection of the policy of the government.
The violence orchestrated by the hoodlums and the opposition mounted by some trade unions followed the signing of an Executive Order by the governor, to control illegal erection of buildings and traffic in the state.
According to the General Manager of JMDB, Hart Bankat, who announced Executive Order No. 003, 2024, it became imperative, considering the indiscriminate manner in which buildings were being erected with traffic control abysmally degenerated within the Greater Jos Master Plan.
The order also followed the prevalence of building collapse in the state with the JMDB vowing to ensure its implementation until its objectives were achieved.
In a Tuesday statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Musa Ashoms, the government vowed that it would not be deterred in achieving its objectives, which informed the executive order.
The statement described the actions of the hoodlums as not only in bad taste but provocative.
Despite the massive publicity and engagement with stakeholders, the government wondered why such attacks would be visited on its officials carrying on their legitimate duties.
Reiterating its capacity to enforce the law for the good of the people, despite disapproval by those who did not mean well for the state, the statement, titled “Bukuru incident in bad faith, provocative,” read in part: “Plateau State on Monday, June 17, 2024, woke up to another gory descent to criminality as the Joint Task Force executing the Executive Order 003 made to carry out its lawful duty in the Bukuru metropolitan area.
“In line with its brief, the JMDB Joint Task Force was at the Bukuru Market in the Jos South Local Government Area to ensure that businesses were in operation within the ambit of the law, given that the market was designated by the government to accommodate only lawful activities without the provision for street vendors.
“But like an apparition of the recent Ahmadu Bello Way incident where resistance to the enforcement of this order led to the tragedy of that day, gangs of miscreants came at the task force, once again.
“We condemn the destruction of property and sympathise with those pained by the losses incurred. We assure the public of the government’s capacity not only to rein in this emerging tendency but to also bring perpetrators to book.”
It added that it would move the state in the direction of positive transformation, adding that nothing would stop the objective.
“We see this recurring bad behaviour as not only sad but provocative. That government’s authority to enforce law and order for the common good, despite massive publicity and engagement, can be so brazenly challenged amounts to blackmail to which the government is not ready to succumb.
“As a government that embodies the legitimate aspirations of its citizens, we recall the massive publicity and engagement with stakeholders and various communities.
“It is unfortunate, therefore, that elements fixated on the old ugly path of retrogression are trying to impede the march of progress. But we dare say the time to let go of the past is now, as no amount of resistance by beneficiaries of a bad system will stop the progress being made.
“The government is determined to move Plateau State in the direction of positive transformation and nothing will stop the attainment of this noble objective,” it added.
