Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday met with seven state governors to discuss finding long lasting solutions to the recurring herdsmen/farmers clashes in the country.
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, chairman if the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, Zamfara state governor, Abdulaziz Yari said the meeting is a fallout of a committee put in place by the National Economic Council, NEC, during its last meeting.
The Thursday meeting was held inside the conference hall of the vice president at Aso Rock villa, Abuja.
“This committee is a NEC committee established by the Vice President so that this issue of herdsmen/farmers clashes will be put to rest,” Mr. Yari said.
Mr. Yari said the farmers/ herders issue is a long standing problem in some states such as Zamfara since 2007.
He said most governors “have been battling with it.”
“Now the states and federal government under the leadership of the Vice President, agreed to have a small committee at NEC so that the situation will not get out of hand, so that it won’t be looked at as an ethnicity crisis or religious crisis,” he said.
Mr. Yari told reporters that Thursday’s meeting set up a subcommittee headed by governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, while Plateau and Adamawa governors are members.
He also said ”more persons will be brought to join the committee from other hotspot states – Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Zamfara, where there is crisis so that they can interface with the Miyetti Allah and other groups to see how we can reduce this to the barest minimum.”
Speaking further, Mr. Yari said he cannot say if the problem would be solved immediately because “some of them have taken this as a money-making venture, some are criminals who hide under this to perpetrate this act.
“As government we have to take all the measures despite the fact that the Army, Police, all the security agents are on the field at the respective places, yet, we have to form this committee to interface with those actors so that this matter can be reduced to the barest minimum and possibly wiped off,” he added.