Christian leaders from the 19 states of northern Nigeria including the federal capital territory, have been urged to proffer solution to the persistent killings of it members by suspected herdsmen.
Chairman, northern CAN, Rev Yakubu Pam, gave the charge on Monday, during a two Day ongoing peace summit, organized by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Northern Zone, with the theme; “Sustainable Peace and Security as a Panacea for Development: The Role of Christian Leaders” to end today, Tuesday in Jos, Plateau state.
The clergy tasked security operatives in the country to secure Nigerians according to the mandate establishing them.
“Security experts who are attending this August gathering in Jos to proffer solution to the current ugly events happening in northern part of this country and Nigeria as a whole.”
Rev. Pam challenged government at all levels to live up to the primary objective of protecting lives and property of all citizens.
“Let me also use this opportunity to call on the state and the federal government to jointly work together by ensuring crisis merchants are not given breeding ground to operate their nefarious activities in any state of this country,” he stressed.
Similarly, CAN National President through Rev Ushishi Yusuf, a scribe in CAN, also reiterated the call by the CAN chairman northern zone, insisted that government must be responsible for securing lives and property of Nigerians.
The summit is aimed at proffering solution to the incessant unrest killing thousands of ruler dwellers, particularly Christians farmers living in villages.
Declaring the summit open for deliberations, Plateau state governor Simon Lalong said he was convinced by the attendance at the summit will yield positive results.
“I have no doubt in my mind that with the caliber of people who have been assembled, for the purpose of dealing with the dialectics of the conversations in this meeting, we are more than poised to identifying and dealing with the essential matter of faith within the cause of this deliberation, that will seek to challenge our collective common destiny as a people.”
“This conversation I dare to say will be robust and enriched only as we seek to be part of the solution rather than being part of the problem, particularly that we have identified the denominator of our engagement being our common faith.”
Governor Lalong call on the participants who are drawn from the 19 states of northern Nigeria and Abuja, are attending the summit to discuss ways of bring an end to the wanton killings.
“I therefore enjoin all of us as participants in this summit to activate in the cause of this meeting, everything that will help us arrive at the desired destination which will speak spiritually and physically to our human conscience.”
Chairman of the occasion, a former military administrator of Plateau state Samuel Atukum, who stood in for the former military President Gen Yakubu Gowon, said the summit was timely, considering unabated killings.
A communiqué is expected at the end of the summit today, (Tuesday) to proffer lasting solution to the continuous killing of innocent Nigerians by suspected herdsmen.
The two day event was attended by the Secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, three ministers, those of Youth and Sport development, Bar Solomon Dalung, Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the minister of state, Labour and productive, deputy governors of Adamawa, Engineer Martins Babale, and Plateau state deputy governor Prof Sonni Tyoden graced the summit among numerous clerics.
