State Project Coordinator for Search, Chorbe Joshua, while addressing participants at the PAD inaugural meeting said the dialogue, holding in Benue State for the first time was aimed at deepening stakeholders engagement in dealing with peace and security issues in the State.
Mr Chorbe said the project was already running in Guma and Otukpo Local governments and hoped to extend to other local governments affected by the conflict including Logo, Agatu and Makurdi.
Giving an overview of the project, Senior Project Manager for Search, Olutoyin Falade regretted that the state since the crisis between farmers and herders has witnessed wide scale human right abuses and increase in crimes such as cultism, drugs abuse, robbery, habouring of criminals by natives while increase in number of IDPs and IDPs camps have also been noticed.
She said Search aim was to find ways to bring already divided relationships back to normal with a peace architecture dialogue at the state level and community security architecture dialogue at the local government levels.
Falade who said Search will be building on the existing peace structures in the state, expressed hope that at the end of the project, peace would return to Benue for her development and the development of the country at large.
The participants at the meeting; SA to Governor Samuel Ortom on SDGs and NEPAD, Dr. Magdalene Dura, represented by Beatrice Shomkey, SA on Development and Cooperation, Commissioners for Agriculture and Information, Hycinth Nyakuma and Joseph Shimaor among others commended Search for bringing such a laudable project to Benue and expressed commitment to work with them.
Commissioner of Police in Benue state, CP Omololu Bishi said the force was overstretched in carrying out its constitutional responsibility in maintaining peace, law and order.
Bishi, represented by the Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations, DC Bumi Osoko said “It gives us concerns when these clashes occur and people are killed. We want to be part of your programmes as it will also enable us carry out our responsibilities.”
Commissioner for Information in the state, Mr Joseph Shimaor who insisted that government was about protection of lives and property said the Ortom led government would work with partners to restore peace for development in the state.
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Our correspondent reports that Search for Common Grounds, is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict, with headquarters in Washington DC and European office in Brussels, Belgium.
Search has a mission to transform how individuals, organizations and governments deal with conflict away from adversarial approaches and towards cooperative solutions.
The organization is implementing a 24 months projects titled, “Transforming the Herder-Farmer Conflict and Promoting Freedom of Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.”
The project aims to increase collaboration between herder and farmer communities to develop joint, effective sustainable local mechanism for early warning, early response dispute management and violence prevention and mitigation at the community levels.
They also want to strengthen implementation of rule of law and accountability measures by the government of focus states and relevant federal government institutions to respond to and prevent violence at state levels.
The project is implemented by Search with funding from Dutch Government. Search has pledged to support the Peace Architecture Dialogue in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states.
ports that Search for Common Grounds, is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict, with headquarters in Washington DC and European office in Brussels, Belgium.
Search has a mission to transform how individuals, organizations and governments deal with conflict away from adversarial approaches and towards cooperative solutions.
The organization is implementing a 24 months projects titled, “Transforming the Herder-Farmer Conflict and Promoting Freedom of Religions and Belief in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.”
The project aims to increase collaboration between herder and farmer communities to develop joint, effective sustainable local mechanism for early warning, early response dispute management and violence prevention and mitigation at the community levels.
They also want to strengthen implementation of rule of law and accountability measures by the government of focus states and relevant federal government institutions to respond to and prevent violence at state levels.
The project is implemented by Search with funding from Dutch Government. Search has pledged to support the Peace Architecture Dialogue in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa states.
