Gov. Tanko Al-makura of Nasarawa State has given the assurance that those fanning the embers of violence in the state will not go unpunished.
The governor gave the assurance in a statement issued on Sunday in reaction to the killing of 30 policemen at Alakyo village by the Ombatse militia.
“The state government will not watch while some disgruntled individuals hold it to ransom and turn the state into theatre of death, undermining the development efforts of this administration,’’ he said.
The statement, signed by Malam Sani Mairiga, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Press Affairs, quoted the governor as saying: “The state government will deal decisively with those fanning the embers of crisis in the state, including their sponsors.
“We have had enough bloodshed in Nasarawa, those who are hell-bent on sabotaging our efforts will not go unpunished.
“It is unfortunate that some people still perpetrate evil against their fellow human beings at a time when the state has begun to count the gains of democracy.
“The crisis has no religious coronation as been speculated by some section of the media; some people are just bent on destroying the state because they feel they are not in power.’’
The governor said in the statement that some politicians were behind the crisis being witnessed in some parts of the state, adding: “They should know that nemesis will soon catch up with them.
“There is no hiding place for unpatriotic individuals in Nasarawa; there is no cause that can justify the killing of innocent souls. ”
The governor called on citizens of the state, regardless of their religion or ethnicity, to be good, kind and supportive of one another “in this difficult period’’.
He warned that the government would no longer condone any act of lawlessness, adding that it would not relent in its efforts to fish out those behind the killings and the source of the sophisticated weapons they (militia) used to unleash the attack.