Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung, Friday, called for State of Emergency in Plateau and other troubled states.
Dalung made the call when he fielded questions from State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The minister stated this while condemning the renewed killing of people in some local government areas of Plateau in the past few days.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to impose state of emergency in Plateau, Benue, Zamfara and Taraba in order to stop killings in the states.
Dalung, however, criticized those apportioning blame on the federal government over the persistent crisis in the Plateau, saying that the state and local government authorities should be held responsible for the problem.
He said: “Collapse of local government administration had contributed immensely to the inability of the security personnel to arrest the problems.
“The Plateau crisis can be traced to many years of inaction by previous and current administrations in Plateau state despite the Federal Government’s efforts to address the problem.
“It is disheartening that Plateau state has been witnessing killings of innocent citizens in the last four to five days and this is very annoying and disturbing to the government and inhabitants of the state.
“I alerted the Federal Executive Council on Sept. 5 on the need to take drastic and emergency measures to tackle the crisis because the local and state governments have failed in their responsibility of offering useful information to security agents despite the huge resources being spent on security.
“It has, therefore, become imperative for the federal government to declare state of emergency in Plateau and other troubled states across the country so as to put a stop to the killings.”
The Sports Minister identified lack of dedicated leadership at both local and state levels as main factor responsible for the inability of the combined efforts of the security personnel to check the killings in Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Zamfara and other troubled states.
He, therefore, advocated for the re-reintroduction of Crises Resolution Committee at the local government level.
“But security personnel alone cannot achieve much in addressing the problem without the support and cooperation of the state and local governments as well as the local communities
“There is the need for collaboration between all the three tiers of government, the local communities and Youth Councils in order to find a lasting solution to the crisis,” he added.
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