President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the latest ethnic violence in Taraba which left a large number of people dead.
Reacting to the incident, President Buhari said that “I am deeply disturbed by the resort to violence over disagreements that could be resolved through dialogue.”
According to the President, “these frequent incidents of ethnic and communal violence is a failure of community leadership and the refusal to embrace dialogue as a means of conflict resolution.”
A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu on Tuesday said Buhari explained that “disagreements over lands or fishing ponds shouldn’t be allowed to degenerate into violence and destruction of life and prosperity.”
The President said that “violence has never settled any problem and, on the contrary, it makes a bad situation worse and lay the seeds of future conflicts.”
“If everyone says they must get what they want through violence, then we make it impossible to allow peace to prevail, thereby jeopardizing every prospects of amicable resolution of disagreements,” the President pointed out.
While sympathising with the victims and their families, President Buhari appealed to leaders at all levels in Taraba State “to seize the initiative in order to forestall outbreaks of deadly violence by thugs.”
He said “life is so precious that leaders in the area should take urgent and decisive actions go halt this disgraceful slaughter of people.”
According to Buhari, “there is the need for community leaders in the State to be more proactive in order to nip threats of violence in the bud.”
He prayed to God to forgive the innocent people that lost their lives in the violence and comfort their families.
