Missing General: Lawyers protest military siege to Plateau villages

While calling on the Nigerian Army to be humane, civil and to respect citizens’ human rights in line with democratic tenets, the lawyers condemned the militarisation of some communities in Plateau State, particularly the Jos metropolis. They also demanded that the Plateau State Government should “set up a judicial commission of inquiry”, composed of “people of integrity and high moral standing in the society to investigate the recent crises in Jos.” The administration of Governor Simon Lalong, the lawyers demanded, should also “ensure the implementation of previous White Papers from such commissions in the past in an effort to bring about an enduring solution to this problem.” The lawyers, under the aegis of Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria, were reacting to the siege laid to some communities in Plateau by soldiers, following the disappearance of a former Chief of Administration in the Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Idris Alkali (retd.). Alkali was said to have retired a few weeks before he was declared missing on Monday, September 3, 2018, a day after gunmen swooped on Dura-Du community in Jos South Local Government Area and killed 13 persons. The Chairman of CLASFON in Plateau State, Panmark Lere, who issued the threat at a press briefing held at the headquarters of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, also condemned the arrest and detention of The PUNCH Newspaper correspondent in Jos, Friday Olokor, by soldiers. CLASFON said several medical doctors at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, professors in UNIJOS, several pastors, community leaders and innocent passersby were arrested, harassed, beaten and detained for days by the army. The PUNCH journalist, who had reportedly gone to eat at a restaurant, Anne Breeze Restaurant, in the Rayfield area of Jos, was picked up by masked military officials around 9.15pm on Saturday, October 6 and detained with 36 others at the 3 Division of Nigerian Army in Rukuba barracks, Jos.]]>