CONFUSION, ANGER AND SUSPICION TRAILS PRESS BRIEFING OF ALLEGED ETHNIC NATIONALITIES IN JOS NORTH, OVER COMING LG ELECTIONS—INVESTIGATION

By: Valentine Adese (JP) and Reuben Egbah

With less than 24 hours that a group under the aegis of the Association of Ethnic Nationalities and Communities in Jos North, composed of representatives of Anaguta, Afizere, Hausa, Irigwe, Igbo and Yoruba including some representatives from the Central and Southern Zones of Plateau, gave their support to the candidature and victory of Hon. Shehu Bala Usman, in the forthcoming Local Government (LG) polls, tension resulting from anger, suspicion and confusion have began to trail the source(s) of the group’s mandate.

THE NATIONALITIES

You would recall that, the group which had its press conference at the Plateau State NUJ Press Center on the issue(s) yesterday, 27^th September, 2021, was led by one Agwom Atang from the Afezere Nationality in Jos North LGA.

Apart from the support declared and shown for Hon. Shehu, who is running for the Jos North Chairmanship seat on the Platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the group also promised to expose any troublemaker in the LG, if the coming elections are truncated in the Local Government by any means.

REALITY investigative team has however, uncovered that, the Ethnic groups mentioned by the group have already began internal investigations to know, who gave the group the mandate to represent and speak on their behalf.

As at the time of writing this report, most mentioned Nationalities and ethnic group are already in the process of denying the knowledge and existence of the group.

They are also questioning to know the forum or meeting place where the resolution to support the bid of Hon. Shehu was taken.

In another level, pundits in the state are already calling on security operatives to swing into action and make the necessary arrest within the group since they have acknowledged knowing those, who are constantly making Jos North Local Government Area ungovernable.

You would recall that in the text of the press conference of the Association of the said Ethnic Nationalities and Communities, the Agwom Atang had warned troublemakers in the local government area to stay clear of the forth coming LGC election or be named one by one to security agencies to take appropriate actions.

Agwom said, “We advice any one, who is thinking of doing any act that will truncate the peace and harmony in Jos and the state atlarge to think twice because, we know them and if pushed to the wall we will name them one by one to the security agencies for appropriate actions”.

“Most of the trouble makers are not even from Jos, but they are using the few individuals to achieve their evil and devilish acts. Our communities are fully committed to peace in Jos North Local Government Area and we resolve never to leave any stone unturned to achieve this.

“We stand united to this resolve and we shall ensure peace in our cardinal mission in Jos North”.