By Amos Aar, with Agency reports
SOME warring communities in Benue State have signed peace accords to resolve their long-standing conflict over the ownership of fishpond and farm land.
The communities, Ologba and Egba in Agatu LGA and Tivs and Jukuns in Fiidi, Makurdi LGA, embraced peace and reached a truce to prevent returning to conflict.
The peace agreement, facilitated by International Alert, in partnership with the Benue State Peace Commission and local community-based organisations, is part of the ‘Powering Peace through Climate Action Project’.
Dr Paul Nyulaku-Bemshima, Country Director of International Alert, said the organisation had been working with marginalised and divided communities to increase access to knowledge and trust through dialogue and cooperation.
Nyulaku-Bemshima stated that the move was necessary to end the lingering crisis in Benue communities over natural resources, exacerbated by climate change effects and ethnicity.
“We are excited about the peace agreement signing ceremony between Tivs and Jukuns in Fiidi and Ogba, Ologba, and Ekaida in Agatu.
“These communities have undergone a long process of dialogue and negotiations on conflict issues. The conflicts are fundamentally over land, water, and fish ponds.
“We ensured participatory processes, and they have developed local peace and adaptation plans to address climate change impacts, build social cohesion, and increase income,” Nyulaku-Bemshima
Mr Sunday Jimoh, International Alert’s Project Manager, said the empowerment projects included training and establishment of briquette making factories, provision of industrial-level fish kiln machines, and installation of solar-powered industrial boreholes.
Mr Joseph Har, Special Adviser on Security to Governor Hyacinth Alia, commended International Alert and urged the communities to maintain the agreement.
“I am going to ensure that these items are handed over to the chairman who is the chief security officer of the local government to take care of these things to ensure that they are not tempered with.
“We are happy that this has happened during our time, we are having peace at this magnitude during our time and we can’t trade it for anything.
Ms Josephine Habba, Director General of Benue State Commission for Peace and Reconciliation, said the peace agreement marked a significant milestone towards lasting peace.
“In prioritising livelihood for peace, we should recognise that it is an endorsement for development and a promotion of peaceful coexistence amount communities.
“The project encourages entrepreneurship with a focus on peaceful values and conflict resolution. This is a successful climate action in promoting peace,” she said
Community members, Ad’Agatu, Godwin Onah, Chief Zaki Gwaza, and Mr Toundo Japhet, applauded International Alert for resolving their crisis and empowering them with entrepreneurship skills and equipment.
They acknowledged that prior to the projects, they could not relate well or cross each other’s communities, but now peace had been restored.
During the tour to Fiidi, the teams visited the ruins of the crisis between Tiv and Jukun and the rehabilitation being carried out by Angel Support Foundation was also witnessed.
Worried by the growing trend of abusing such agreements, the Director General (DG), Benue State Peace Commission, Mrs Josephine Habba, directed that copies of the peace pact be shared to all members of the communities present at the meeting to read and comprehend it before the agreement would be signed. This, according to her was to hold responsible, any community that will breach the agreement and the document will be used against them in the court of law.
“You have signed agreements in the past which I’m a witness to, and the reason why I came out with this is that these agreements are being abused. Today, I’m not going to be a witness to an agreement that after a few weeks, we will see a breach of it. So, these agreements are tenable in court. If you disrespect it or breach it, you will defend yourself in court,” Habba cautioned.
Receiving the equipment on behalf of the Benue State government for onward hand over to the benefiting communities, the DG however assured of the government’s commitment to sustaining peace in the communities, adding that as the project is going to end one day, Benue State govt will sustain the efforts thereafter.
