Northern Governors meet with Miyetti Allah in Sokoto

dimeji akinloye

March 25, 2018 10:24 PM

The stakeholders were said to have discussed the genesis of the crisis, efforts to contain it and how to find a lasting solution.

The Northern States Governors Forum on Sunday, March 25, met with the national leadership and state chapters of the

The meeting was part of the efforts to put an end to the killings resulting from the continued clashes between herdsmen and farmers across the federation.

Present at the meeting, which was held in Sokoto, were Borno Governor, Kashim Shettima; host governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Governors Abdullahi Ganduje and Nasir el-Rufai of Kano and Kaduna respectively.

It was gathered that they discussed genesis of the crisis, efforts to contain it and how to find a permanent solution.

According to Shettima, the 19 northern states are worried by the rising cases of insecurity involving herdsmen-farmer crisis, adding that their intervention will help in finding lasting solution to the conflicts.

He said the governors' intervention will complement the efforts of the Federal Government, stating that they hope to adopt 'local conflict resolution mechanism' to restore trust among all the people of the region.

Shettima added, "We have seen enough crisis in the North East with Boko Haram. We cannot afford to let any other conflict linger without a solution.

"We hope to hear from all sides and finally come up with a workable plan that will restore confidence and entrench lasting peace in our region".

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Punch cited a source at the meeting who said MACBAN, led by its National President, Muhammed Kirowa, believes that approach to conflict resolution adopted by some governors is not working because it's biased.

"In his view, political leaders, especially governors, should approach issues of peace in neutral perspective, not as biased party", the source said.

"He said their members have lived in many of these conflict-prone communities for centuries without conflict, but wondered why the situation is getting out of hand now".

The stakeholders, however, did not reach any resolution at the Sokoto meeting.

It was learnt that there would be other meetings of the stakeholders in Abuja, Jos, Makurdi and Kaduna.

dimeji akinloye