Killings: Osinbajo panel to engage stakeholders

The Vice President Yemi Osinbajoled committee constituted a fortnight ago by the National Economic Council to end killings by herdsmen has raised a sub-committee to consult stakeholders on how to end the conflict.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement, said this was the outcome of yesterday’s meeting of the committee held at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The closed-door meeting, presided over by Osinbajo, was attended by the governors of Zamfara, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Kaduna; the deputy governors of Benue and Oyo states as well as the Ministers of Agriculture and Interior.

Akande said the sub-committee was constituted to visit frontline states in the conflicts and hold consultations with stakeholders and interested parties on how to end the crisis.

He said the subcommittee, chaired by Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State, has the governors of Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Adamawa states as members.

He said the subcommittee would visit Benue, Taraba, Zamfara and Adamawa states in order to understand dynamics of the conflict and develop long term workable solutions.

Governor Yari had told State House reporters after the meeting that people from the “hotspot” states of Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Zamfara would be brought to join the sub-committee in order to interface with the Meiyetti Allah and other groups with a view to reduce the crisis to the barest minimum.

Yari, who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, also said the crisis could not be put to rest because some of the perpetrators had turned killings into money-making venture, adding that “some are criminals who hide under this to perpetrate this act.”

It would be recalled that the National Economic Council had, a fortnight ago, set up a 10-man committee headed by the vice president to end the crisis.