From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
As part of measures to check the precarious security situation in the state, Governor Aminu Bello Masari says government is set to establish a total of 361 conflict resolution centre across the 34 local government areas of Katsina State.
‘There are many benefits of this alternative dispute resolution,’ Governor Masari said on Monday, noting further that the move will significantly reduce the spate of conflicts and insecurity in parts of the state.
Governor Masari spoke at the commissioning ceremony of the Dandagoro Community Conflict and Dispute Resolution Centre in Batagarawa Local Government Area.
According to the governor, ‘the people living here are friends not antagonists, the Chief Judge said earlier, there are many cases when people leave the court after discharging them, they don’t leave on friendly ground both the winner and the vanquished.
‘Nobody can rent a house or property without documentation. So this, also another way of checking people’s character, their location, their businesses.
‘Again, it will enhance communal living or to know there are resources where you can go settle some minor disputes.
‘We have to know who we are, where we will be and what we do because it doesn’t make sense when someone comes here and says he is a petty trader, and he is making profit of 10,000 naira but you see him spending 50,000, 30,000, 40,000 and riding this, riding that.
‘I think it is important now we become policemen of each other once there is little suspicion.
‘We will certainly achieve a lot in terms of promoting peace and security.’
Speaking earlier, the state Chief Judge, Justice Musa Danladi Abubakar, said that a conflict and dispute resolution centre established earlier established for the state in February 2020 had started yielding the desired results.
Abubakar said It is cost-effective, time saving and saves the court time to attend to other cases and saves time for the police to attend to other more serious offenses and crimes.
‘When you have intra-family disputes, there is no point for police to delay that. If you have neighbourhood conflicts, all you have to do is to come to the community conflict centres, to be resolved amicably.
‘It has already impacted positively and why we are replicating it in all the local government areas of the state,’ he said.