Defence
HENRY Mang, a Senior Lecturer with the Centre for Peace Studies, University of Jos, says effective community policing will end the ongoing farmers-herders clashes in the country.
Mang said this on Friday in Jos while delivering a paper entitled “Between Crops, Grass and Social Changes: Problematising Violence Conflict in Northern Nigeria”, at an ongoing summit on farmers-herders clashes.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the summit is “The Challenges of Herders-Farmers Conflicts in Nigeria”.
The summit was organised by the Justice Development Peace Commission (JDPC), an NGO of the Catholic Archdiocese of Jos, supported by Pharos Observatory France, a French-based organisation.
According to Mang, effective surveillance and motorised patrol in major grazing areas, involving the locals, will go a long way in addressing the rift between farmers and herders.
“There is need for the establishment and promotion of community policing, especially motorised patrol and surveillance in the major grazing areas.
“In doing that, local people should be involved in intelligence gathering and that will be of immense benefit to the security agencies.
“So, the Inspector-General of Police (I-G) should seek the President’s approval to strengthen the Police community unit by recruiting and training civilians in community policing.”
The lecturer also charged security agencies to ensure effective patrol along the Nigerian borders, to ward off cattle marauders operating across the boundaries.
He added that rule of law should be strictly adhered to in punishing cattle rustlers and pastoralists.
Mang advised the government to ensure the control of proliferation of small and light weapons among the people in order to stem the spread of weapons used during armed conflicts in the country.
Earlier, Rev. Fr Basil Kassam, JDPC Assistance Coordinator, said the summit was timely due to the myriad of challenges farmers and herdsmen were passing through.
According to him, the forum is aimed at bringing critical stakeholders together to discuss and proffer lasting solutions to the lingering conflicts between the two groups.
“You will all agree with me that this stakeholders’ forum is timely, given that our nation is passing through a lot of challenges ranging from natural disaster in the north to accidental disasters in the south.
“Criminal activities of cattle rustling and kidnapping across the country had left us all in the state of tension and fear as people are being killed at random. All these challenges have created untold hardship on the citizens.
“This forum is aimed at bringing stakeholders together to evolve intervention strategies towards a sustainable transformation of this worrisome predicament.’’
Kassam said to achieve this, stakeholders must be united to seek lasting solutions without any further delay.
NAN reports that participants included religious and community leaders, NGOs, the media and security agencies, among others.
– July 6, 2018 @ 11:55 GMT |
Tags: Robust community policing will end farmers-herders clashes says UniJos lecturer
