“How can a group of people just wake up and begin to protest to the Villa.”
Four days after twin explosions in Jos, the Plateau State capital, killed at least 122 people, the state governor, Jonah Jang, visited the blast scene and the victims for the first time.
Mr. Jang was out of the country when the twin explosions occurred on Tuesday afternoon at the Plateau main market, also called the Terminus market.
The governor arrived Jos at about noon on Friday; and like his commissioners and aides did while he was away, refused to disclose his reason for travelling outside the country.
His only explanation was that he briefed President Goodluck Jonathan about his trip.
The Plateau Commissioner for Information had, while defending Mr. Jang’s failure to visit the blast scene, told the BBC Hausa Service on Friday morning that the governor was in Germany. She also refused to disclose his reason for travelling.
On arrival, Mr. Jang hurried to the scene of the explosions, accompanied by state officials and journalists.
At the explosion site, Mr. Jang blamed virtually everyone but his government, and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and its officials for the Jos explosions and the worsening insecurity across Nigeria.
The governor reiterated what his deputy had earlier said that the state governemnt had asked traders to vacate the market; and that if they had obeyed, the explosion would not have occurred or the casualty would not have been that high.
“This place is not a market in the first place,” he said. “They were trading here illegally; we had made several attempts to relocate them to a better place, but they resisted.”
He vowed that his administration would demolish the market and chase the traders from the place.
“This time, we are going to clear this place, I will hold a security meeting and ensure that nobody comes back here to trade again. This decision is in the interest of safeguarding lives and property,” he said.
Mr. Jang also blamed the traders at the market for their inability to detect that bomb-laden vehicles were parked within their midst for hours.
“How come a car will be parked in a place for hours, and almost on the road; yet nobody raised alarm,” he said. “We must learn to be security conscious.”
The governor did not stop at blaming the traders for the blast, he also blamed opposition leaders and critics of the government for the worsening Boko Haram insurgency in Northern Nigeria.
Mr. Jang said some critics, some of whom had held leadership positions in Nigeria in the past, had threatened to make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan and were sponsoring the insurgents.
He asked the president to go tough on such people.
“There is nobody that is above the law of his country,” he said. “Let Nigerians challenge those making inflammatory comments over insecurity.”
“Mubarak (ex-Egyptian leader) has just been jailed, former Prime Minister of Israel was also jailed recently. Therefore, whichever leadership position anyone has held in Nigeria does not make such a person untouchable.
“I am calling Mr. President to take decisive actions against all those making such comments,” he added.
The governor also alleged that “some of them have information on how we can stop this Boko Haram, but because most of them are either sponsors or agents of the Boko Haram, they are making things more difficult.”
Mr. Jang said comments by some members of Nigeria’s largest opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, since the over 250 girls Chibok girls were kidnapped, were capable of misleading and creating more insecurity in Nigeria.
The governor also criticised protesters demanding more government action over the kidnapped girls.
He criticised the hundreds of people who took part in the #BringBackOurGirls protest in Abuja on Thursday.
The protesters had been meeting daily to demand more action from government to bring the over 250 girls kidnapped from Chibok back to their homes.
Mr. Jang said the protesters, who planned to march to the Presidential Villa but were stopped, do not mean well for Nigeria.
“How can a group of people just wakeup and begin to protest to the Villa; demanding Mr. President to go to the forest and bring back those girls,” the Plateau governor said. “Why don’t they go to the forest where the girls are?”
The governor also deepened the controversy over the casualty figure from the Tuesday explosions.
He said by the records available to the state, 78 people were confirmed dead from the blast.
The National Emergency Management Agency had said on Wednesday night that by its official tally from the various hospitals, the death toll was 122.
A body count by PREMIUM TIMES at the four hospital mortuaries and accounts of health officials, however put the death toll at over 200.
The governor later visited some of the blast victims still in the hospital. He reiterated the pledge made by his deputy that the state government would foot the hospital bills of the survivors.
Mr. Jang commiserated with families of those who lost relations in the blast, and appealed to those still searching for their relations to report to appropriate government agencies.
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