1,654 persons, N970bn worth of
property lost in Jos crises since 1994
– Jos group
6
March 17, 2011
News
*Wants FG to compensate victims
By Taye Obateru
Jos – A GROUP, the Coalition of All
Southerners Forum in Plateau State,
yesterday said they lost no fewer than
1,654 people and property worth over
N970 billion to the crisis in the state since
1994 and and called on the Federal
Government to compensate the victims.
At a briefing, the group made up of Igbo,
Yoruba and people from the Niger Delta,
said from statistics available, 630 Yoruba,
604 Igbo and 430 people from the South-
South lost their lives to the crises which
had lingered for over a decade.
Their spokesman, Mr. Smart Irabor, said
the three socio-cultural groups decided to
come together following the killing of their
members again in Dilimi area on January 8,
this year following the Christmas Eve
bombings which affected areas where they
resided or did business.
According to him, the Yoruba lost property
worth N450 billion, Igbo N$10 billion and
South-South N110 billion in the various
crises since 1994.
He said the people belonging to the three
groups had been targets of attacks in crises
without provocation and called for
“ adequate compensation from the Federal
Government for negligence in the discharge
of its statutory duties for not wading into
the situation quickly and stopping the
arbitrary killings and destruction of our
people. ”
The group called for the prosecution of all
those indicted by the report of past
investigations into the crises in the state as
well as the release of the white paper on the
report of the Chief Solomon Lar-led
Presidential Advisory Committee on the
crises.
It expressed support for the planned
neighbourhood watch outfit – Operation
Rainbow, recently approved by the Federal
Government to complement the efforts of
the police and the special task force
maintaining security in the state.