Daily Trust Editorial, Tuesday April 14, 2026
Plateau State was once again thrust into the headlines after terrorists opened fire in Unguwan Rukuba, a densely populated part of Jos city. The assailants’ bullets had no mercy as they randomly pierced the bodies of men, women, and youths enjoying the night breeze on Palm Sunday. Reports quickly emerged that more than 20 people had been killed. The tragedy deepened when youths, perceiving the attack as targeted at Christians, launched reprisal assaults, and what began as a single act of terror spiralled into sectarian violence that engulfed the city.
As government and security agents made frantic attempts to call for calm and restore order, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu condemned the attack, then visited the state and met with victims’ families, state officials, and stakeholders at the Yakubu Gowon Airport. He assured that the recent wave of killings would not recur and directed security agents to go after the perpetrators.
But barely 24 hours later, another attack in Barikin Ladi and Riyom local government areas of the state claimed four lives and has since reignited tit-for-tat killings. Now, for anyone who has studied the pattern of conflict in Plateau State or who has lived through the years of violence in the state, it is clear that warnings and assurances from government and security officials do not end the circle of killings. As a matter of fact, residents who have endured decades of violence often dismiss such promises as political rhetoric that carries no significant weight.
In Plateau, as it has equally become the norm in many conflict-ridden areas of the country, justice has eluded many victims and their families. Instead, what has taken shape is a growing tendency for citizens to forcefully take it through whatever means. In areas where ethnic and religious identities complicate the conflict, justice is seen through the prism of who can inflict the maximum harm on a group perceived as the enemy.
In the last 25 years, Plateau State has become a tinderbox. Even though security agents have made numerous arrests, prosecutions that could deter future violence or provide closure for families are lacking. Operation Safe Haven, later renamed Operation Enduring Peace, which maintains law and order in the state, appears to have exhausted all options of bringing sanity to the state. Established over 15 years ago with a broad mandate not only to contain violence but also to investigate and prosecute offenders, the task force, comprising personnel from the Army, Air Force, Navy, DSS, Police, Prisons, and NSCDC, was designed to be more than a stopgap security architecture.
Unfortunately, it has devolved into a short-term peacekeeping operation, restoring order only until the next attack. No doubt, it has made several arrests in the past, but prosecution remains rare. Even when the task force, alongside the 3rd Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, investigated the disappearance of one of their own, Major General Mohammed Idris Alkali (rtd), and later made arrests in connection with his murder eight years ago, prosecuting the suspects in Plateau State continues to drag on.
It is this failure to bridge the gap between crime and justice that emboldens criminals and perpetuates the endless cycle of killings. For instance, since the Unguwan Rukuba attack two weeks ago, Nigerians have received no official briefing on investigations, leads, or arrests of those directly involved in the massacre. Instead, rumours abound that suspects detained during the subsequent breakdown of law and order in Jos were released, allegedly on the orders of Governor Caleb Mutfwang.
This pattern is deeply troubling. Justice demands that those who break the law, regardless of status, religion, or ethnicity, face consequences. Yet successive Plateau governments have often caved to blackmail by citizens. Women-led protests, for instance, have repeatedly been used to blockade security agents from carrying out legitimate functions or to sway authorities into releasing suspects, thereby turning justice into a bargaining chip.
As part of providing a long-lasting solution to the security crisis in the state, former Governor Simon Bako Lalong had, during the president’s visit, suggested that he, alongside past governors Jonah Jang and Fidelis Tapgun, with current Governor Mutfwang, could devise solutions in consultation with President Tinubu. It does not take a genius to identify the roots of Plateau’s recurrent crisis. Though complex, they are buried in specific issues that lie in unresolved indigene-settler disputes, ethnic and religious tensions, struggles for political representation, farmer-herder clashes, land disputes, and now banditry and kidnapping. These issues are consistently framed through identity politics rather than treated as criminal acts.
President Tinubu must be told plainly: peace in Plateau cannot be achieved through meetings with present and past governors or through assurances alone. Without accountability, reprisals will continue, and lawlessness will thrive. Justice delivered through transparent investigations and credible prosecutions is the only deterrent strong enough to break the cycle.
Political interference remains the greatest obstacle. As Commander-in-Chief, we urge the President to instruct security agencies to resist directives from Governors that undermine investigations. Where prosecutions stall at the State level, suspects should be transferred to Abuja to ensure due process. Plateau State and Nigeria at large can find peace, but only when justice is consistently applied.