The government of Plateau State has expressed shock over the commencement of trials of suspects arrested in the civil unrest in the state by the Federal Government in an Abuja High Court, saying it is a contravention of the body of attorneys-general meeting which agreed that such suspects should be tried where the offences were committed.

Besides, the state government, said the reports that one of the suspects died in detention in Abuja under circumstances that were not known to the government was disturbing.

Addressing newsmen in Jos yesterday, the state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Edward Pwajok, said that government's consistent appeal to federal authorities to return suspects arrested in the wake of the 2008 and 2010 civil crises in the state was becoming frustrating, stressing that these requests always fall on deaf ears.

Pwajok pointed out that the state is handicapped over the fate of suspects arrested in the heat of the crisis, saying the police, army, SSS and others whose to keep the suspects in their custody have refused to cooperate with the state which is ready at anytime, to ensure the prosecution of the suspects.

In his words: "no suspect of the November 2008 or January 2010 is in the custody of the Plateau State government. The police and security agencies that arrested them are Federal Government agencies.

He further stressed that "I am also worried that the police have wittingly or unwittingly contradicted and undermined the efforts of the Federal Government to delist Nigeria from the American terrorist watch list. The suspects are being charged under Section 15 of the EFCC Act, which is on terrorism", he added.

The attorney general also frowned at the Federal Government for trying the suspects for terrorism under Nigeria's laws, adding that how then can the country justify itself to the outside world that it has no terrorist?

The commissioner stressed that he was "worried that the attorney general of the federation may have encouraged the police to use the EFCC Act because he briefed us on that possibility during the meeting of the Body of Attorneys-general on January 26, 2010 to that effect".

According to him, some persons in the Federal Government are desperate to avoid due process by trying the suspects in Plateau State, that they are willing to take a route that will give the international community the irrefutable proof that we are a terrorist country.

He warned that without cooperation and collaboration between the federal and state governments on issues relating to crisis, then the problems are far from being addressed, even as he emphasised that "the characteristic silence of the office of the inspector general of police and the attorney-general of the federation in this regard is not commendable.