Yesterday in Kaduna,NorthernStates
Governors’ Forum, (NSGF) met to address the
lingering kidnap of 110 Secondary School girls in Dapchi, Yobe
State, and farmers/herders clashes in the region.
Speaking at the opening session of the meeting held at the
Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, Chairman of the forum and
Governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima called on his colleagues to look at the issues
dispassionately with a view to arriving at genuine solutions.
He also disclosed that the forum will receive the report
of restructuring committee headed by Sokoto State Governor, Aminu
Tambuwal. He said the region will come up with a position on the issue like other regions.
He said: “Top on the agenda of today’s meeting is the
issue of the lingering inter-communal crisis in various parts of the
region, which, in recent times, appear to be escalating with deadly and
destructive consequences, such as the conflicts between farmers and
herdsmen.
“As elected leaders, it is our primary responsibility to
take a hard and critical look at these conflicts and come up with
implementable ways and means of addressing them squarely. It is also
critically important, as a long term measure, to device viable
strategies to forestall all forms of security challenges that may likely
erupt in the future.”
The governor, however, emphasised that whatever resolutions the
forum arrives at, should be without prejudice to the various
commendable and comprehensive measures being put in place by the Federal
Government in addressing the security challenges; especially the recent
abduction of the Dapchi School Girls.
Shettima lamented that in the last few days, Taraba and
Kaduna states have, again, experienced spates of deadly and destructive
communal clashes which culminated in the loss of many lives and
destruction of millions of naira worth of property.