From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Director General, Plateau Peace Building Agency (PPBA), Joseph Lengman, has expressed commitment to collaborate with critical community leaders in proffering lasting solution to farmer-herder clashes in Plateau.
He noted that the Agency has put in place strong a mechanism to respond to communal violence and all violent crime with a view to restoring the status of the state as a haven for tourism.
Joseph Lengman disclosed this on Wednesday during the dissemination of the rapid needs assessment report on violence crises in Mangu and Bassa.
The Director of Programmes, Plateau State Peace Building Agency, Mr Godwin A Okoko, representing Lengman, said the needs assessment programme was carried out in Mangu and Bassa with the aim of restoring sanity in the areas where dozens of lives have perished.
‘The programme was to validate the rapid response programme that was conducted by the Peace Building Agency and supported by USAID/OTI and NERI, in Mangu and Bassa LGA to understand the root causes of persistent conflicts in the areas and to proffer solution,’ he said.
‘It also provide areas that government and none state actors can come to improve on the livelihood and also to stem issues that has potentials to trigger conflicts.’
He explained that the needs assessment was conducted for about four months by a team of enumerators put together by community leaders in the respective LGAs and led by the Plateau Peace Agency to strengthen peace process in the state.
The Chairman of Mangu Local Government Area, Hon Lawrence Gideon Danat, represented by the Director General of Research, Planning and Documentation, Mangu LGA, Canaan Anthony Danok, expressed hope that the gesture would go along way in addressing the persistent farmer/herder killings in the areas.
Gukyes Nanlop Sarah, women leader, Mwaghvel community in Many LGA, Ezekiel Peter Bini, National President, Irigwe Youth Movement and Jacob Adingbu Agal, National President Bache Development Association, expressed hope that the effort will end the perennial killings in the localities.