Plateau State Governor ,Simon Lalong has said that 32 Public and Private Properties with estimated value of seventy five billion naira were destroyed in the State in the aftermath of the EndSARS violence.
The Governor disclosed this during an interactive session with youths in the State at the New Government house in Jos on Friday.
The Governor lamented the level of destruction that was carried out in the State noting it clearly takes the state back many years in terms of development.
”We went round some of the affected areas together with Members of the National Assembly Caucus from Plateau State and the Minister of Women Affairs to assess the level of destruction. What we saw was horrific and despicable.
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“This clearly takes us many years backwards as we do not have the resources to replace the structures vandalised and the items damaged or stolen. We are yet to recover from the devastating economic consequences of COVID-19 which has greatly affected our capacity to provide services.”
“Indeed, this act of destruction has nothing to do with the initial #ENDSARS protests, but a clear act of criminality and unpatriotic behaviour. As at the last count, we have more than 32 public and private properties that were affected in the looting spree.”
“My dear youth, as a father and your Governor, I feel your pain. My heart goes out to all our youths for the many challenges they face daily due to lack of opportunities for jobs and better conditions to achieve their dreams.”
The Governor noted that justice cannot be achieved either by violating laws or trampling on the achieved rights of others instead that can only breed chaos and anarchy leading to worse consequences than what they sought to address in the first place.
” You would agree with me that the enormity of the challenges we face cannot be resolved overnight or with a wave of the hand. It is a process which all of us must collectively work together to achieve.”
” However, the question that begs for answer is, “can these problems be solved by the kind of destruction and carnage we witnessed recently?” When we destroy the few infrastructures we have, we can never build the better Plateau that we all yearn for.”
The Governor appealed to the youths to always avoid any action that can threaten our unity and peace of the state.
“Let me appeal to our youths to always put the interest of our State at heart and learn to build, not to destroy. Be very careful of the negative use of the social media which has the capacity for inciting gullible people towards violence, hatred and destruction.”
