IDPs in Plateau to return home before Dec. 31 – STF Commander

Plateau residents displaced by the recent skirmishes in some parts of the state would return to their ancestral homes before Dec. 31, Maj. Gen Augustine Agundu, Commander, Special Task Force (STF), has said.

The project is tagged “Consolidating Mechanism For Sustainable Cooperation and Transformation of Farmer/Herder Conflict”.

“From my interaction with the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), they are all looking forward to a return to their ancestral homes. All they want is a guarantee that they will be protected.

“It is my resolve that they will all be back in their original abodes before the end of December.

“It is not time for long talk; it is a time for real action and we are ready for that, in our efforts to ensure that the IDPs are back home and happy,” he said.

Agundu said that the STF had identified communities that were deserted out of fear of being attack.

“Houses in such communities are still intact; so, their residents will be the first to be resettled,” he said.

Agundu said that Plateau residents were tired of incessant crisis and wanted to live in peace.

“We have met all stakeholders and urged them to play their roles by guiding the youths to be part of the peace building process,” he said.

Mr Joseph Lengmang, Director-General, PPBA, said that the second phase of the project was to consolidate on the gains made in the first phase of the project funded by the United States Embassy in Abuja.

Lengmang said that much still needed to be done to sustain the fragile peace in the state, regretting that emerging conflict trends were threatening gains already made toward a stable Plateau.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that representatives of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Plateau chapter, and Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation, offered suggestions on the path to permanent peace in Plateau.