The Brigade Commander, 23rd Amour Brigade, Yola, Brig. Gen. Bello Mohammed has said that seven policemen and two soldiers lost their lives within the past two months as a result of Numan sectarian crisis involving herdsmen and farmers.
Mohammed made this known yesterday in Yola while addressing a town hall meeting of stakeholders on the crisis.
Mohammed said the military organised the meeting to sound a final warning to those involved that it would henceforth be hard on those who failed to embrace peace and dialogue in resolving differences.
“The crisis that initially started in Numan and its environs spread to four LGAs namely; Girei, Demsa and Lamurde, and later to parts of Taraba State.
“Sadly, the measures and strategies employed by security agencies have not yielded the desired effect; the stakeholders have regarded our soft handedness measures as weakness and incapable of dealing with the situation.
“Henceforth, we members of the security agencies forum have collectively resolved to tackle this mayhem and unwarranted killings at all cost.
“The first deliberate step towards permanently resolving this issue is this town hall meeting. It is part of soft power approach to internal security situations, it would be followed by hard and smart power approaches. To be forewarned is to be forearmed,” Mohammed said.
While lamenting that elites, politicians and traditional rulers in the affected areas were not helping matters in addressing the problem, Mohammed said warring parties were also fond of over reacting and mostly on baseless and unconfirmed information.
The brigade commander said that as part of measures taken by security agents to tackle the security situation in Numan, resisting an arrest or obstructing security personnel from carrying out their duties would be considered as serious offense.
Other actions that constituted serious offenses according to him included unlawful assemblies and movement of persons with arms in affected communities.
Our correspondent reports that those who spoke at the meeting included representatives of farmers, herdsmen, politicians, traditional and religious leaders.
They all condemned the crisis and resolved to mobilize their people towards peaceful coexistence and the need for dialogue in resolving conflict.
Meanwhile,President Muhamamdu Buhari, yesterday met behind closed doors with the nation’s security chiefs as part of efforts aimed at ending the spate of insecurity across the country.
The meeting was held inside the President’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali; and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, led the security chiefs to the meeting.
The new Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ahmed Abubakar, attended the security meeting for the first time since his recent appointment.
Apart from the service chiefs, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, also attended the meeting.
In a message posted on the Twitter handle, @NGRPresident, the Presidency said the security chiefs briefed Buhari on intelligence gathering and law enforcement efforts across the country.
“Security meeting today, presided over by President @MBuhari. NSA, Service Chiefs, Intelligence Chiefs, IGP in attendance.
“President briefed on Intelligence-gathering and law enforcement efforts across the country, by the various agencies,” the message read.
The meeting came at a time that there is growing concern over increasing killings by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen across the country.