The Hausa/Fulani Community in Jos under the auspices of Jasawa Community Development Association (JCDA) has appealed to Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang to reopen the Terminus Market and the road that passes through it and the city center, Murtala Muhammed Way.
Plateau State Government had closed the shopping malls popularly known as Abuja Market, which is adjacent to the Terminus Market and blocked the major road crossing the market following the twin bomb blasts along the road on May 20 this year.
Speaking yesterday at the commemoration prayers for victims of 28 November 2008 Jos crisis, the President of JCDA, Shehu Ibrahim Masalla said that the closure of the market and main access way to and out of the city center had placed hundreds of people in untold hardship.
Masalla said, “We are calling on the Plateau State government to reopen the closed shops at the commercial nerve center of the city, and the federal government-owned trunk A road, the Murtala Muhammad Way. Ever since the ill-fated twin bomb blasts, shops that were closed by the state government have remained closed despite the untold hardship. This is impacting negatively on the masses and also crippling the economy of the state. This is the only scene of the bomb blast that has remained sealed for so long all over the country, as per our record”.
Referring to the 2008 Jos crisis, Masalla said, “Today marks yet another year in which we will gather here to remember not only what we suffered in the heinous killing of our community members, but to also pray for them as usual, and to keep in our memory, including the rest of the world of the injustice that was mercilessly meted on. We are up till now denied access to our self acquired grave yards, at Bukuru Gero road, on which a satellite market was constructed, and that of Rusau village in Jos North, despite all peaceful meetings with the security agencies”.
He called on the federal and state governments to adequately compensate the victims of the crisis.
