October 14, 2006
Posted to the web October 15, 2006
A house belonging to Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu was yesterday set ablaze by rampaging youths protesting the killing of two persons allegedly by Policemen conveying the state's legislators they had brought into the state for undisclosed reasons back to Abuja. Two other persons were injured in the incident, while one of those shot was said to have just left the Plateau Hospital where he has gone to receive treatment when a bullet hit him on the forehead tearing off the right part of his face.
The house, located along Mangu Road, off Ibrahim Taiwo Road is said to be inhabited by Mantu's sister, but she escaped unhurt.
Four vehicles were also vandalized. The legislators who were driven to the assembly premises around 8.am.
were said to have met in a room within the complex as a court summons was conspicuously pasted on the door and other parts of the building. Hundreds of youths who learnt of the sitting by members of the House of Assembly had gathered to protest against what they called the attempt to coerce the legislators to act a script but were barred from moving close to the assembly gate.
They were further pushed backwards towards the Plateau Hospital where they took position and barricaded the road with stones.
As the legislators were being driven out of the state along the road, the protesting youths surged, following which the policemen began to shoot sporadically and fired several canisters of teargas, leaving behind casualties.
Governor Joshua Dariye who got wind of the killings drove to the assembly premises and to the Plateau Hospital where he saw the injured people and one of the corpses which was still lying at the gate of the hospital. He appealed to the rampaging youth to remain calm despite the provocation so as not to fall into trap of those looking for an excuse to unleash terror on the state.
In a broadcast to the people later, the governor regretted the killings in the desperate bid to force members of the house to move against him.
What is more disturbing is the fact that these armed operatives resorted to the naked use of arms which resulted in the death of some innocent citizens of the state who were passing near the state assembly. As I have consistently said, democracy is not dictatorship and therefore its tenets and the rule of law must be upheld.
However, what we have seen in Plateau State today and in the past could be likened to a coup de-tat and an act of outright terror and tyranny on our peace loving and armless citizens.
I feel deeply grieved and worried that some people who want the leadership of this state at all costs have chosen to again spill the blood of our citizens to achieve this objective rather than through the ballot box, the law courts and other constitutional means , he said.
Chief Dariye said if democracy is truly government of the people, what is happening currently in the country was far from it.
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