Northern State governors have warned that reprisal attacks in response to the recent violence in Plateau State will not resolve the on-going crisis but only make it worse.
Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum and Gombe State governor, Inuwa Yahaya, disclosed this to State House correspondents yesterday, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He advised that stakeholders should instead come together to discuss the root causes of the clashes in order to find a lasting peace on the Plateau.
The Governor added that after any such tragic incident, the priority should be on caring for the survivors rather than planning counterattacks, stressing that reprisals have never helped to calm tensions in the past, and he cautioned both communities against taking that path again.
He said, “Despite the fact that this matter has been there for long, it is time for stakeholders to have a roundtable and tell each other the truth and then take deliberate steps toward loving each other. Reprisal attacks have not taken us anywhere; so, what we need to concentrate on doing is understanding ourselves and knowing that we have leaders at all levels to whom we can lodge our complaints.
“We should imbibe the habit of loving one another and living in peace for the progress of all of us”, the governor stated.
He commended President Tinubu for sending Vice-President Kashim Shettima to visit Kaduna and Plateau States in order to get the details of what transpired at Tudun-Biri in Kaduna State, as well as Ɓokkos and Barkin-Ladi local government areas of Plateau State.
The Governor also sought more collaboration between the federal and State governments in Nigeria. According to him, doing so will help a lot in achieving development in all sectors, thus bettering the lot of citizens.
