The Chief of Army Staff, Major General Taoreed Lagbaja has advised the Governor of Plateau State to convene an expanded stakeholders meeting with critical stakeholders to end killings in Plateau State.
Lagbaja also asked the Governor to review reports of past commission’s of inquiry and implement recommendations to halt wanton killings.
The COAS stated this in Abuja when he received the Governor and his entourage on a Courtesy visit at Army Headquarters.
“Shortly before His Excellency arrived at the Army HQ, I received the report from the field, the GOC 3 Division sent me the report because I’m interested in what he’s doing and they told me of what he has done in concert with the other security agencies in the theatre of operation and he has asked that will explore available channels to bring to the attention of your Excellency the need to convene an expanded stakeholders meeting. It is better to bring all stakeholders to the table and let them joy joy rather than War War. So I will appeal that you look at the possibility of looking at the previous reports of commissions of inquiry”.
He said the Nigerian Army has taken measures to restore peace to the troubled Mangu local government and others in the State. He also promised to deploy more combat enablers to restore peace on the Plateau.
“We have taken some measures and we believe those measures will yield the desired results quickly and we are still receiving reports from the field to see other areas of intervention that can bring a lasting peace to the troubled local government and even the entire Plateau State. So we will stop at nothing in providing the combat enablers and other interventions that are required to bring lasting peace to the state”.
The Governor in his remarks assured that, he would engage in dialogue with critical stakeholders to bring lasting peace to the State.
He congratulated the COAS for his appointment and pledged to support troops deployed in his state to achieve their constitutional mandate.
“I came here this evening to congratulate the COAS on his well deserved appointment. It is a measure of trust and confidence that the commander in chief of the armed forces has in his ability to lead the troops to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria and also assist in securing the internal peace of our various states. Indeed the COAS has assured me of the renewed commitment of the NA towards ensuring an early resolution of the crisis on the plateau. As a government, we are also ensuring that we do our part, we are providing all the logistics support that we can to all the security agencies to do their work, to make sure that their working environment is improved upon as well as putting on measures to ensure that non kinetic to resolve the crisis are also reinvigorated. In the coming days you are going to see more of dialogue among the various community leaders of the plateau to ensure that plateau retains it’s status as the home of peace and tourism.”
