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The states are aim to end communal clashes on their mutual border.
Muhammad Ahmad
The governments of Nasarawa and Benue States have agreed to identify routes and hideouts used by criminal gangs and their collaborators whose activities have led to the death of over 28 people and destruction of property worth millions of naira on the border between the two states.
This was contained in a nine point communiqué issued on Thursday in Lafia and signed by the two state governors, Tanko Al-Makura and Gabriel Suswam, after a peace meeting with stakeholders from the two states at the government house Lafia, Nasarawa State.
Before the commencement of the meeting, Mr. Al-Makura, in his welcome address, suggested that the two states share intelligence to help curb the persistent communal crises in. He said that the crisis has taken a new dimension that has brought untold hardship to residents of both states. He said the intelligence sharing would help to fish out the perpetrators of the conflict, adding that the aim of the meeting is to bring stakeholders from the two states together to proffer solutions to the lingering crisis.
“We have had useful collaboration in the past but the problem we now facing has taken a different dimension that has torment our people and brought hardship to both citizens of the two states,” he said.
He therefore sued for peace, saying that the two states needed peace for enhanced development.
“No meaningful development can be achieved in an atmosphere of rancor,” he said.
Mr. Al-Makura then commended Mr. Suswam for making the meeting possible.
In his remarks, Mr. Suswam called for frank and honest deliberations regardless of primordial sentiments, adding that it was the only way to resolve the crisis.
“We must collectively join hands together to find a lasting solution to the crisis; we are not here to apportion blame but to proffer amicable solution to the crisis,” he said.
In the communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, the two states emphasised that the crisis on their border was not in any way based on bad blood between them.
“After exhaustive and frank deliberations, the meeting noted with every sense of responsibility that: The ongoing crisis is not a conflict between the indigenous people of Benue and Nasarawa States and should not be viewed as such,” the communiqué read.
The states condemned in strong terms the infiltration of border communities which has led to the conflict. Residents of the states were urged to take security related issues seriously and also identify and expose suspicious movements.
“Every community should take security related issues seriously and as a matter of priority by, among other things, identifying and exposing routes and hideouts being used by criminal gangs and their collaborators.”
The states have also set up a committee of traditional rulers and select stakeholders to properly articulate the ways and means of further achieving peace.
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