At least 400 Plateau youths have been trained on forgiveness and
electoral violence by the Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC), a
renowned organisation working on peace building.
The centre, co-chaired by Imam Nurayn Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye,
said the essence of the programme with the theme: Forgiveness for
Sustainable Peace and Development on the Plateau is to break the
chains of violence in the state.
Pastor Wuye said: “We chose the theme of forgiveness because it’s what
is lacking in the efforts to break the chain of violence in the
state”.
Also, the co-chair, Imam Nurayn Ashafa, said the programme would
continue in the state as it engaged about 500 religious and community
leaders.
He urged the youths and people of the state to shun acts of violence
and embrace peace, love and unity in order to generate growth and
development for the citizenry.
In his speech at the closing of the 3-day training programme,
Commander of Operation Save Haven (OPHS), Major-Gen Augustine Agundu
said the crisis in the state are caused by the elite and urged them to
eschew hatred and stretch the hands of fellowship, peace and
neighbourliness in the state.
He said: “It is a shame that we set to talk about the genocide of
Rwanda, which was purely caused by hate speech, and we are having a
similar thing here in Nigeria.
“No issue regarding famers, herders’ crises; what we have is some
people preaching hate, for people to kill other people,” he said.
He added that the disturbing problem throughout last year was
criminality and cultism, stressing that youths should not allow
themselves to be used as thugs to perpetrate violence during the 2019
elections.
Co-chair of IMC, Pastorn James Wuye, while presenting certificate of
participation to 492 participants from across the 17 local government
areas of the state, said all the trained youths were automatic peace
ambassadors of the centre.
