Killings by herdsmen cannot be put to rest because perpetrators are criminals who have taken the attacks as a money-making venture, Zamfara State Governor has said.
Yari, who is also the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, stated this in an interview with State House correspondents on Thursday after a meeting with Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
The closed-door meeting, held at the Vice President’s Office, was attended by the governors of Adamawa, Ebonyi, Plateau, Kaduna; the deputy governors of Benue and Oyo States as well as the Ministers of Agriculture and Interior.
Yari also disclosed that the meeting constituted a new committee headed by the governor of Ebonyi State, David Nweze Umahi; with the governors of Adamawa and Plateau as members.
He said people from the “hotspot” states of Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Zamfara would be brought in to join the new committee in order to interface with the Meiyetti Allah and other groups with a view to reducing the crisis to the barest minimum.
“Why we cannot say we can put this matter to rest is because some of them have taken this as a money-making venture, some are criminals who hide under this to perpetrate this act,” Yari said.
It would be recalled that the National Economic Council had, a fortnight ago, set up a 10-man committee headed by the vice president to end the crisis.
Yari explained that the NEC raised the Osinbajo-led committee so that the situation would not get out of hand and in order not to make the problem look as an ethnic or religious crisis.
The governor, however, affirmed that the Osinbajo-led committee, mandated to put the matter to rest, had made progress.
He said the crisis had been “a long standing problem” which some states, including his, had been battling with since 2007.
“In our discussion today (yesterday), we have set up a committee headed by the governor of Ebonyi State, while Plateau and Adamawa governors are members. Other people will be brought to join the committee from hotspot states-Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Zamfara-where there is crisis so that they can interface with the Meyitta Allah and other groups to see how we can reduce this to the nearest minimum.
“As government, we have to take all the measures. Despite the fact that the army, the police, all the security agents are on the field at the respective places, still, we have to form this committee to interface with those actors so that this matter can be reduced to the barest minimum and possibly be wiped off,” Yari said.
