Personnel of the Special Task Force (STF), the joint armed forces outfit maintaining peace in Plateau, on Monday, embarked on a clean-up exercise of major streets in Jos-Bukuru Metropolis.
A corespondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who covered the exercise, reports that the soldiers also evacuated heaps of refuse dotting some sections of the city, with some of them sweeping the major highway connecting Jos and Bukuru.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Bello, the Chief of Staff of the outfit, told NAN that the exercise was part of the army’s “Non-Kinetic approach” to ensuring peace on the Plateau.
“The clean up exercise is symbolic; we want Plateau people to know that the STF is here for them and needs their full cooperation.
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“We want the people to see us as part of them and join hands with us toward making Plateau safe for all,” he said.
Reacting to the gesture, Mr Christopher Batai, General Manager, Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency (PEPSA), commended the STF for embarking on the exercise.
He said that the initiative was a laudable, and urged that it be carried out more regularly.
Mrs. Esther Izam, who runs an eatery along the Yakubu Gowon Way, commended the army for cleaning up the highway and evacuating waste from the waste bins at the First Bank, Hwolshe junction.
She equally appealed that the exercise be sustained by the STF.
Similarly, Mr Bitrus Yohanna, a petty trader, told NAN that he was scared when he saw the soldiers and the army truck, on the road.
“Their sight frightened me at first, but when I saw the soldiers evacuating the waste into the truck, I was relieved and was sure that we were not in trouble,” he said. (NAN)
