Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna state has urged the police committee on peace, security and reconciliation of farmers and herdsmen chaired by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Michael Zokumo, to actively engage locals in unearthing the truth behind the dastard clashes.
The Committee was set up by the Inspector General Police, Mohammed Abubakar, and tasked with finding ways of bringing the deadly clashes between suspected Fulani gunmen and natives in some northern states to an end.
Speaking when the committee paid him a courtesy call yesterday in Kaduna, Yero said it was only through active interaction with those directly affected that the panel could identify the true causes and solutions to the crisis.
Yero, who berated those fuelling the crises, said the reconciliation meetings should have been with the locals directly affected by the crises rather than the elite “who are the ones escalating the situation for selfish aims.”
“The meeting should have been held in Kaura and other affected communities in order to involve people at the grassroots, so that you can sit down with the natives and Fulani to resolve the matter. The crisis is not about religion or ethnicity. It is being engineered by some people using religion just in their selfish interests.”
Zokumo said the Committee had succeeded in causing reconciliation between natives and herdsmen in troubled communities in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states where relative peace and calm had returned.
