The leadership of the Mwaghavul Youth Movement, MYM, has raised alarm over what it described as a dangerous ethnic threat targeting the Mwaghavul people of Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.
The MYM was reacting to a widely circulated report in which suspected bandits who abducted two clergymen along the Barkin Ladi-Bokkos road last week reportedly said they would have killed one of the pastors if he turned out to be either Mwaghavul or Berom.
Pastor Gabriel Dipak was abducted alongside Pastor Emmanuel Hills, who was later killed by their abductors.
After his release, Dipak told journalists in an interview that the bandits told him they would have killed him instantly if he were either Mwaghavul or Berom.
Expressing concern over the alleged ethnic threat in a statement issued on Saturday by its Director of Public Affairs, Tubwot Joël Sunday, the MYM said it was disturbing that members of the ethnic group would be targeted by terrorists and bandits.
The group said such threats should not be dismissed as ordinary banditry, arguing that they showed that the Mwaghavul people were being profiled and targeted for elimination by terrorist groups.
The MYM argued that if criminals were now selecting victims based on ethnic identity, it created a frightening scenario in which travelling through certain roads in Plateau could become a matter of life and death based on a person’s ethnic identity.
The organisation added that allowing such ethnic targeting to continue unchecked would further deepen fear and suspicion among communities that have lived together for decades.
While the MYM said it did not want to pre-empt security investigations, it stressed that the timing and proximity of the recent killings in Mangu, following the specific threat against Berom and Mwaghavul people, demanded an urgent intelligence-led investigation to determine whether there was a pattern of ethnic targeting.
The group also urged Mwaghavul people to remain vigilant, strengthen early-warning systems, avoid night journeys through vulnerable routes and report suspicious movements, while warning against reprisal attacks or collective punishment of innocent people based on ethnicity or religion.
Plateau attacks: MYM raises alarm over ethnic threat targeting Mwaghavul people