Plateau State governor Caleb Mutfwang has explained why he spoke from an armoured vehicle to address residents after the recent attack in Jos.
Governor Mutfwang spoke on Friday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said the position gave him height to speak to the crowd and denied claims that he was under threat.
“Part of the reason they put me in the APC was for me to gain height in order to address the crowd,” he said.
“As I addressed the crowd and they were comfortable that I had arrived, that’s why they were saying, ‘come, come,’ assuring me that I could come and that there was no harm.”
He added that the interaction with residents was calm and that security personnel later allowed him to move closer to the crowd.
“Therefore, it was easy for the security personnel to accept my insistence on moving into the crowd,” he said.
The governor said he was in Abuja when he received news of the attack and made plans to return to the state.
“I was in Abuja… when the news filtered that this had happened,” he said.
He said he went to the scene after learning that residents wanted to see him before allowing evacuation of victims.
“I wanted to drive straight to the scene because the crowd had said unless they see the governor, they are not going to allow those corpses to be evacuated,” he said.
Mutfwang also said videos shared on social media did not show his full engagement at the scene.
“If not for mischief, why are people not focusing on where I spent 90 per cent of the time with the crowd, seeing the corpses, appealing to people, calming people?” he said.
“You could see that social media can take a small portion and misrepresent it completely.”
He said security agencies are working on information to identify those behind the attack, adding that no arrests have been made.
“We have some actionable intelligence at the moment that the security agencies are following up,” he said.
Mutfwang urged residents to remain calm and avoid taking the law into their hands, adding that efforts are ongoing to maintain peace.
