Andrew Ajijah, Jos
Following renewed killing of people in some parts of Plateau State, the Catholic Agency For Oversea Development (CAFOD), has brought together crisis-prone communities within Jos North and South to dialogue, as a means of averting any civil unrest.
Country Director of CAFOD, Mr. Kekechi Emeh, made the disclosure to journalists in an interview, on Thursday, at the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace DREP, where a one-day exhibition of Arts and Culture was held to mark International Day of Peace with Plateau communities.
Mr. Kelechi disputed allegations making around that the renew violence is bedeviling Plateau state was religious.
Mr. Kekechi said the United Nation was concerned about the multiple loss of lives through violence in Plateau State and have designed a four-year peace programme tagged, ‘Zaman Tare’ (living together), to re-unit communities to live together in harmony, irrespective religious differences.
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CAFOD Country Director said the programme was being sponsored by the United Nations as a means of ensuring permanent peace is returned to all parts of Plateau State.
According to him, the current insecurity in Plateau State was ‘criminality among youth’.
Mr. Kekechi attributed the violence to high intake of hard substances and other abuse of drugs by citizens. He urged community leaders to help curtail the trend.
He also tasked the state government to tackle criminality and excessive use of drugs.
Earlier in an address, Founder of DREP, the outgoing Catholic Archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, who spoke through Rev. Fr. Bliss Agwom, acknowledged that the programme is timely.
The Catholic priest charged Plateau citizens to se themselves as brothers and sisters and end the killings.
Fr. Agwom, however, was happy that violence in the state was no longer at its peak.