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By Kunle Akogun and Onwuka Nzeshi, Abuja,
In a swift response to yet another violent sctarian crisis in Jos, Plateau State, the House of Representatives  yesterday mandated its ad hoc committee, which probed the last violence in the Tin City  to get back to work  and unravel the remote and immediate causes of the current violence in which several people  have been reportedly killed and several others rendered homeless.

The mandate to the Committee headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Honourable Usman Bayero Nafada came even as a group of women stormed the gates of the National Assembly in protest over the growing insecurity of lives and property in Jos.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole averted what could have been a rowdy confrontation amongst some lawmakers pitched against themselves over the raging religious cum ethnic crisis.  

Some lawmakers, it was learnt, had planned  to raise the issue of the recent  killings  and destruction of property in Jos as a matter of urgent public importance while another group  had also threatened   to oppose the motion at all costs because of the perceived bias of the first group on the matter.

Bankole  who sensed danger at the outcome of the debate on such a sensitive issue, pre-empted the move by both camps when  he promptly briefed the House on the happenings in Jos  and how he had been intouch with the  top  hierarchy of the Nigeria Police  and the State Security Services  on the crisis.

Apparently to douse the brewing tension, Bankole took it upon himself to brief the House shortly after the opening prayers and other formalities were completed as the stage was set for the day’s plenary session.
He announced that he had been in touch with the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ogbonnaya Onovo and the Director General, State Security Services, Mr. Afakiriya Gadzama and had received assurances that the tense situation would soon be brought under control.

Bankole allayed the fears of the lawmakers and the nation on the
crisis and assured that the relevant security agencies had moved into the city to halt the carnage and secure the lives and property.

It would be recalled that the House set up an Ad Hoc Committee on December2, 2008, to find out the causes of the November 2008 sectarian crisis and suggest ways of averting a recurrence.

Amidst protests from the Plateau State Government, the Committee commenced its investigative hearings    in the troubled city   early January 2009 where it received oral submissions and written memoranda from various stakeholders.

The Plateau State Government  did not only question the interest of the House of Representatives in the matter, but filed a law suit against the Federal government for setting up a  parallel panel of enquiry to probe what the state government regarded as an internal conflict among  ethnic groups in the state.