Following the recent attacks in Plateau State, particularly in Jos North Local Government Area of the state and the closing down of the University of Jos by the school management, the governments of Gombe and Kogi states have evacuated their indigenes who are students of the university.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Kogi State Governor, Onogwu Mohammed, said in a statement on Saturday that indigenes of the state studying in UNIJOS were evacuated by the state using buses escorted with heavy security.
Mohammed said, “This was as a result of the directive of Governor Yahaya Bello, mandating that everything necessary must be done to return the students safely back home.”
While describing the event on the Plateau as unfortunate, the governor assured the students of their quick return to school, noting that the authority in Plateau State was on top of the situation to restore law and order in the state.
Similarly, the Gombe State Commissioner for Higher Education, Meshack Audu, said in a telephone interview that indigenes of Gombe studying in UNIJOS had been evacuated back home. Audu said on the directive of Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Yahaya, on Friday, the students were evacuated in four buses with security protection provided.
According to him, the governor gave a mandate that everything necessary must be done to return students of the state back home.
The commissioner said, “We were still profiling them when I left for another function. We conveyed them in four buses. Specifically, I won’t be able to tell you the number so that I won’t give you wrong number.
“In compliance with the governor’s directive, the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Ibrahim Njodi, instructed me to immediately facilitate and monitor the safe return of the students. We had to do that as a responsible government and they have all been evacuated to safety.”
Meanwhile, the Plateau State Government said on Saturday that a total of 46 persons who survived last Saturday attacks on commuters at the Rukuba road community in the state had been returned to the Ondo State Government.
The spokesman for Governor Simon Lalong and Director of Press and Public Affairs, Government House, Macham Makut, disclosed this in Jos on Saturday.
Recall that about 22 people were reportedly killed in the attack on the victims who were said to be returning from the annual Zikr prayer in Bauchi State and heading for Ikare in Ondo State when they ran into irate youths mourning their kinsmen earlier killed by suspected herdsmen
In a statement on Saturday, Lalong’s spokesman said a high-powered delegation, led by the state Deputy Governor, Prof. Sonny Tyoden, delivered the surviving victims of the Rukuba Road attacks to the Ondo State Government on Friday.
According to him, the deputy governor who was accompanied by Emir of Wase, HRH Mohammed Sambo Haruna; Yoruba Community Leader, Plateau State, Chief Jide Olagbemiro; Chairman MACBAN, Plateau State, Alhaji Nura Mohammad; Alhaji Sani Mudi; and Prof. John Wade.
The delegate asked the people of Ondo to forgive the people of Plateau for the actions of the few misguided criminals who they said acted on their own as they did not represent any religious, ethnic or social interest in the condemnable act.
He said “Governor Lalong has been distressed by this development which is an attempt to jeopardise the hard-earned peace that has been substantially restored in the last six years since his coming office. He gave assurance of government commitment to protecting lives and properties of all Nigerians and reiterated that the culprits involved would be brought to book.”