Police crush Jos protests over appointments

                              

Anti-riot policemen were deployed to the streets of Jos following protests that broke out in the city following the appointment of commissioners in Plateau State.

The most strident of the protests came from the volatile Jos North Local Government Area, where some youths kicked against the appointment of a non-indigene as the commissioner representing the area.

Governor Simon Lalong had announced the list of 17 commissioners to represent each of the local government areas of the state, with a former member of the House of Assembly, Mr. Nasif Ahmed, nominated to represent Jos North.However, the indigenous population, consisting of the Afizere, Anaguta and Berom, criticised the appointment, saying that in the history of the local government, no Hausa man had been appointed commissioner.

Hundreds of youths from the three ethnic nationalities converged on Etoo Baba Street, Angwa Rukuba and other adjoining streets in the state capital, chanting slogans and denouncing the appointment. The protest nearly became violent when some people claiming to be officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria joined the fray.

The Chairman, Berom Youth Movement, Mr. Choji Chuwang, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH on the development, said that all the commissions of inquiries initiated to probe past crises in Jos, identified the three ethnic groups as indigenous to Jos North.

He added that it would be disastrous for the government not to give cognisance to this fact in his choice of appointees.

He said, “You should remember that if the appointment of a Hausa man as the sole administrator of the poverty alleviation programme in 1994 could cause mayhem of such magnitude, then you can imagine what will happen in this instance. We had expected the government to be sensitive to the feelings of the natives.”

“Moreover, the history of previous administrations in the area showed that they had carefully avoided these mistakes, knowing how costly it could be. The government should have known that Anaguta had occupied the position before and with the appointment of an Afizere as the transition committee chairman, a Berom man should naturally have got the slot.”