Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has admitted that the crisis in Plateau State and other security problems began during his tenure as President but that they were not in the magnitude as they are today.
He said: “even in my time, we had problems but not in this magnitude. We thought we were dealing with them as at that time but the earlier we deal with them, the better. I believe we can find solution; we must find solution.”
Obasanjo, who visited Jos today, Wednesday, to commiserate with the Governor and people of the State over the recent killings in the State advised the Federal and State governments to identity the root cause of insecurity that has been dodging the country.
“What happened is very sad, that in this day and age this type of barbaric act is taking place in our country. I have suggested and I will say it again that we should find out the root cause of this problem and deal with it.
“There must be remote and immediate cause, if we deal with it, we are not going to be multiplying condolence visits.
“I believe that any human problem has human solution, I do hope and plead with government at the Federal level, those of you in States and even local government level to join hands even at the community level to find the causes and deal with them permanently.
“We offer our condolences to the bereaved families, all we can say is that God knows the best.”
Responding, Governor Lalong appreciated his coming, but noted that a phone call would have sufficed.
“Insecurity is not new to me; we thought we could handle it. When we came in, we quickly put up a team including Berom and Fulani. They came out with a roadmap to proffer solutions. We adopted the recommendations and have implemented some and was in the process of implementing the remaining ones.
“We have done our best. We have learnt our lessons. We will be very firm.” [myad]
