Southern Kaduna killings: Initiate Peace building before aggrieved parties converge to resolve crisis-Osinbajo

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo has said a process of reconciliation and peace building should commence for aggrieved groups and individuals to say what was troubling them before assembling all parties to resolve the Kaduna crisis.

He warned that unless this was done, the lingering Southern Kaduna crisis has the capacity of consuming everyone if not halted.

Speaking in Kaduna weekend after inspecting the level of work at the Kaduna airport where air traffic will be diverted to from March 7^th 2017, following closure of Nnamdi Azikwe International airport, the Acting President told stakeholders that the mindless killings, violence and the spread of hate were not panacea to the problems on the ground.

 Disclosing that he had been briefed on the crisis, Osinbajo said he was still studying the issues to enable him broker a lasting solution.

 His words, “I will like to begin a discussion on the very terrible crisis that has gone on for a while in Southern Kaduna.

 “Let me say first that there is no question at all that many have suffered, families have lost loved ones, a lot of blood-letting has taken place in Southern Kaduna in the past few weeks and I want to express my sincere condolence to all of those who have lost families and friends and who have been traumatized by the terrible things that have been going on in Southern Kaduna in the past few months.

 “But I must say there’s no question whatsoever that violence would never stop any of the problems we are experiencing today, there’s no way we will resolve it that way.

 “On this matter I have read documents; quite a few of the reports, as a matter of fact, I have tried very hard to study the crisis in Southern Kaduna, personally, I have read quite a few documents including reports of past crises.

 “Recently, I have taken briefings from the service chiefs a couple of days ago on what is going and since I got in today, I am also taking briefing from some of the senior officials of the armed forces and state security.

 “And I want to say that I don’t want us to be in a hurry, I am certainly not in a hurry because I don’t believe that a crisis where there is so much blood letting and hatred over the years can be resolved by a couple of meetings. No, I don’t believe that is possible.

 “I have talked to his Excellency the governor, that what I would like to achieve is not a quick fix but I want us to begin a process and I want to be a part of that process that will listen to each group separately and then get everyone together.

 He promised to convene meetings with representatives of CAN, JNI, MACBAN and other stakeholders separately.

 Speaking with journalists on the diversion of air traffic to Kaduna, Osinabjo said “We are here to inspect the progress of work at Kaduna Airport because we deserve the temporal substitute for Abuja airport for both local and international flights.

 Earlier, Governor El-Rufai vowed to bring the instigators and perpetrators of the killings in the last 37 years to justice.

 He noted that some suspected individuals were not invited to the meeting so as not to give them a clean bill of health.

 “Ladies and gentlemen that we invited here, I will like to say that you are here on the invitation of the Vice President.

 “There are some who were not invited for the reasons that they know, because we suspect they are behind some of these problems and we do not intend as state government to give legitimacy to anyone under investigation for being behind some of these problems”, he said.

 CAN chairman, Rev. George Dodo lamented that those behind the arrest were yet to be arrested.

 Representative of JNI in Kaduna State, Alhaji Sanusi Maikudi said that failure to act on the recommendations of commissions of inquiry was also fueling the crisis.

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