Transcript Of Visit To Plateau State After The Herdsmen/ Farmers Clash

• Share:

TRANSCRIPT OF HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT HIS VISIT TO PLATEAU STATE AFTER THE HERDSMEN/ FARMERS CLASH ON THE 25^TH OF JUNE, 2018.

PROTOCOLS

After all of the effort that has been made to secure peace here in Plateau State, this morning we held a meeting with the President, as a matter of fact since yesterday evening, and he had said that it would be important that I should come here and have a full meeting with His Excellency, the Governor, the security agencies and the communities just so as to better understand what it is that the Federal Government can do.

But I want to say that it is very, very disturbing indeed, very sad indeed and I must, of course, express very sincere consolations and our sincere condolences on behalf of the people and government of Nigeria, on behalf of the Federal Government, for those who lost their lives in Barkin Ladi Local Government in this past few days. It is so sad and so terrible that we still have a situation where these sorts of things can take place and people are killed, so many people are killed in this manner.

It’s a very condemnable act, the president has already said in a statement that whatever it takes, we must ensure that we not only arrest and find all those who have committed heinous acts, but that they are seen to be publicly punished for these actions.

After what has happened, of course, we’ve seen also a number of killings and a number of maiming going on, even on the street and His Excellency, the governor pointed out a few of those cases where people have sort of taken the law into their own hands.

It’s also unfortunate that as in a manner of these things those would want to make gains from things, some political, some who are just looking for their own private interest would also wish to take advantage of these sort of terrible things. I believe very strongly that anyone who takes advantage of killing of men and women and children like himself or herself; I don’t understand how such people expect, or what they think would become of themselves also when they support or when they take pleasure or want to take advantage of these sorts of things but I want to just say that, we would look at this a great deal with a great deal of concern and interest.

I am very certain that the Federal Government will ensure that this is not allowed to stand, that this sort of travesty is not allowed to stand. I’ll be speaking of course to the military commandant, commissioner of police and all of the other people in the security service. I know already, that the Inspector General of police deployed, today, including the CDS has also communicated to the President, that they have deployed Special Forces here to ensure, that is the military, to ensure that there is peace.

I’m also aware that the Save Haven, Operation Safe Haven has been here for some time, and we believe that that operation will be able to bring about peace and will be able to bring about tranquillity. But I want to just emphasize again, that this sort of thing is completely inexcusable, there’s no reason for this for this at all. I just want again to say that just what Governor has said, this has always been the example, Plateau state has always been the example, of one place where a sort of conflict we have seen between communities, in this case between environs and Fulanis. This was an example of how peace could be brought about and there could be the settlement of individual, community complaints and all that and it has always been held up as an example not just locally but also internationally.

So this is really very disturbing that after a period of almost, two (2) and a half to three (3) years of relative peace, we find that this travesty increased just two (2) days ago.

I want to say that it is the responsibility of each and every one of us, especially the leadership, the leadership of the communities to ensure that we’re able to bring about a situation of lasting peace, no matter who in the end will be held responsible for some of these activities. I think we must ensure that we don’t allow a situation where anybody gets away with these sort of killings.

The particular case in this local government, we‘ve been told that herdsmen attacked the village, and we don’t know what the exact reasons were, but this is what we were told. This is a condemnable act, it is completely without intent, there’s no reason whatsoever for killing any Nigerian, no reason for killing anybody.

Even in law, even if a killing has taken place, you’re not even allowed to kill in return, if you do it, it’s as criminal as the very first act itself and I want to say that this act is condemned. I certainly believe that unless we seize the moment to ensure that this is not allowed to continue, we may have greater problems on our hands. We must not allow in this country, a religious crisis that becomes intractable, that becomes uncontrollable and if these sorts of things continue to happen, we’d have the kind of crisis that no country in the world has ever survived from, a religious crisis.

So, I want to urge all the leaders and of course as I said, we’ll be talking to community leaders later on in more detail. I want to urge all the leaders to ensure that we show restraint especially on what we say. Already, all over social media there’re all sorts of things are going on there, all sorts of true and untrue, factual and false going on. These sorts of things can create a situation that goes out of control. There’s nobody who can survive a religious war or a religious crisis, and I want to urge every one of us to exercise restraint and be as civil as possible even in the way we engage as we go forward.

Thank you very much.