31/03/2026
JING YOUTHS ASSOCIATION (JIYA)
STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF ANGWAN RUKUBA
AND CALL TO ACTION TO THE PLATEAU STATE GOVERNMENT
We stand with you, people of Angwan Rukuba; As we mourn the irreplaceable loss of our beloved brother, Mr. Alexander G. Daniel, we are equally aware that his death was not a solitary tragedy. He was one among many innocent lives snuffed out in the cold brutality of an assault that targeted a community, not merely individuals. To the families of every victim who fell in Angwan Rukuba on that grievous night of 29th March, 2026; we see you. We hold your grief as our own. The Jing Youths Association stands with you in this darkness, and we refuse to look away.
Mr. Alexander G. Daniel was more than a member of our association. He was a son of the Jing community, a thread in the fabric of who we are. His absence is a wound that will not quickly heal. But we know he is not alone in death. He was taken alongside brothers, neighbours, and community members whose names must not be forgotten and whose stories must not be buried under the weight of political silence. We honour them all. We call their deaths what they are; the consequence of deliberate, organised terror.
To the Government of Plateau State, the Jing Youths Association (JIYA) calls upon the Government of Plateau State to rise to the full weight of this moment and respond with the urgency, clarity, and resolve that the people of Angwan Rukuba and indeed all of Plateau State deserve. We call on the government to apprehend, prosecute, and bring to justice every individual and network behind these attacks. We are past the season of vague condemnations and administrative delays. The perpetrators of this violence are known in pattern, if not yet in name. The pattern is consistent. The targeting is deliberate. And the silence of inaction is no longer tenable.
We further call on the Government of Plateau State to name this crime with courage and precision. What happened in Angwan Rukuba is not “communal violence.” It is not “a clash between farmers and herders.” It is not an unfortunate eruption of local tensions. What happened is genocide; a religiously targeted campaign carried out by militia groups whose ideological roots trace directly to the Janjaweed philosophies that the international community has long condemned. These are not spontaneous attacks. They are the expression of an organised campaign to systematically eliminate communities on the basis of their identity and faith. Calling it anything less is not diplomacy. It is complicity.
The Janjaweed ideology with its theology of ethnic and religious supremacy enforced through the barrel of a gun, has no place in the twenty-first century. It has no place on the Plateau. It has no place in Nigeria. And the militias that execute it, however subtle their backers or sophisticated their coordination, must be confronted as what they are; terrorist organisations acting against the sovereignty of this state and the humanity of its people.
We call on the Governor of Plateau State and all relevant security and judicial institutions to declare unequivocally that these attacks constitute terrorism and genocide, and to act accordingly mobilising the full legal, security, and diplomatic resources of the state to end this cycle of impunity.
The Jing Youths Association was not founded to mourn in silence. We were founded to stand. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to support every credible initiative, coalition, and platform dedicated to ending the cycle of violence against our communities. We will partner with civil society, interfaith bodies, legal advocates, media institutions, and every responsible government agency that is genuinely committed to peace with justice, not peace with impunity.
We will not be moved by intimidation. We will not be silenced by fatigue. And we will not allow the memory of Mr. Alexander G. Daniel and every other soul lost in Angwan Rukuba to dissolve into a statistic.
Their lives demand more than candles and condolences. They demand change. We will stand. We will speak. We will not stop.
E-SIGNED:
Yeshak Mwelbish Dafes
National President
FOR: Jing Youth Association (JIYA)
Date: 31st March, 2026
