Governor Lalong charges religious, community leaders to expose hiding criminals

– Governor Lalong accused religious and community leaders of hiding criminals in Plateau state

– Lalong said they are compounding crisis in the state by not exposing the criminals

– He, however, charged them to always expose the suspects in their domains

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state on Tuesday, November 6, blamed the crisis in the state on religious and community leaders saying they are compounding pandemonium by hiding criminals in their domain.

Daily Trust reports that Lalong made this known State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari together with the executives of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) at the State House Villa, Abuja.

According to him, ”And I have also charged community leaders just like President said, I said if you want to ensure peace in your place, community leaders must also come out and expose criminals in their domain.

”But when someone commit crime and community leaders or religious leaders fight to protect them that why we have problems. If they had exposed the killers of Alkali (General Idris Alkali) earlier everything would have been solved. But there you have community and religious leaders who claimed to be religious, who claimed to be religious leaders hiding criminals.”

The minister of youths and sports, Solomon Dalung said they discussed issues relating to security, plight of displaced persons and other national issues.

Dalung said the meeting with the President was on the request of the COCIN executives.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that a former governor of Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, who declared his support for President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Simon Lalong also called on people in the state and Nigeria at large to vote for the political leaders in 2019 general elections.

Senator Dariye, representing Plateau central, made the plea from jail after he was convicted of corruption charges.

In a statement signed by his former campaign director, Chief Maichibi Vwarji, Dariye said the APC under the leadership of Lalong at the state level and Buhari at the federal level had performed creditably well and stabilized the polity.