The governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Plateau State, Samuel Danauta Kyarkshik, has pledged to reopen cold cases of killings and pursue perpetrators if elected governor in the 2027 governorship election.
Kyarkshik made the pledge on Tuesday during an interactive session with journalists in Jos, where he outlined his proposed approach to tackling insecurity and other challenges confronting the state.
According to him, security must go beyond condemning attacks, with perpetrators investigated and brought to justice.
“Security is beyond rhetorics. Ending insecurity is beyond coming out to condemn killings,” he said.
The APM candidate said he would not allow people to attack communities, kill innocent residents and return to their communities without investigation.
“I can’t be governor and somebody who lives within the borders of Plateau State to come in, kill innocent people and go back to their community without investigation.
“As a matter of fact, in my inaugural speech, when we win this election, we’re going to declare war on the enemies and bandits and criminals within and around our people.
“They are already owing us. They have killed so many people. Cases have gone cold. We will reopen the cases and go after the killers. That’s what we need on the Plateau,” he emphasized.
Kyarkshik, who described insecurity as his number one priority, attributed the persistence of attacks partly to what he described as the organised nature of criminality in Nigeria.
“One of the reasons why this insecurity has continued incessantly on the Plateau is the fact that criminality in Nigeria has been an organised crime,” he said.He noted that tackling the problem would require political will, boldness and experience in dealing with threats to communities.
“And you need a man who has the boldness, the will, the experience of having gone into the battles to defend communities on the Plateau to solve this problem,” he said.
The candidate claimed that more than 167 communities had been attacked on the Plateau between 2023 and 2025, resulting in over 2,630 deaths and leaving more than 45,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs).
He also criticised the inability of the government to return displaced persons to their ancestral communities, saying attacks were still occurring in parts of the state.
Kyarkshik said his proposed security strategy was part of a broader plan contained in a 120-page blueprint, which includes the Plateau Transformation Roadmap 2027–2037 and the Plateau State Economic Master Plan.He said the plans were designed to address insecurity, poverty and the state’s dependence on federal allocations by exploiting Plateau’s mineral, agricultural and human-capital resources.
The APM candidate also promised to pursue economic opportunities in the state’s solid-mineral sector, agriculture and other areas to create jobs and reduce poverty.
He said Plateau had the potential to generate enough internal economic activity to reduce its dependence on federal allocation.
Kyarkshik further promised to establish free healthcare and education from kindergarten to tertiary level if elected, saying the state had the resources to support such programmes.
He also proposed the establishment of a Plateau State Drug and Rehabilitation Centre to support young people struggling with drug addiction.
The candidate said his campaign was focused on what he described as the state’s major challenges rather than opposition to any individual or political administration.
“My party, APM, is not fighting Caleb Mutfwang and his people. We are fighting issues on the Plateau,” he said.
