Yobe: British Council, MCN resolve 409 disputes through traditional system

About 409 disputes that might have escalated to conflicts in Yobe state have been resolved in the last one year by British Council Programme, Managing Conflict in Northeast Nigeria.

The MCN state team Lead, Abdulkadir Sambo, disclosed this during a one-day Lesson Sharing Event of Community Peace and Safety Partnership in Damaturu, the state capital.

Sambo said the traditional system of resolving disputes is the best and widely most accepted, and that communities should not dash it away.

“This is a community platform where 25 persons meet to discuss issues of safety and security in their locality. Early warnings to crisis are discussed and we proffered solutions by assigning tasks to themselves so as to prevent it from escalating.

“So far based on our records, there 482 disputes received from our community peace and safety partnership in 10 communities and out of the number, 409 were amicably resolved without Police or going to court of law,” he said.

The team Lead further noted that the programme was about recognising institutions to respond to some of the cases appropriately.

“Not all disputes should go to court, some of these disputes when you resolve at lower level, it doesn’t escalate to conflict. Our Correctional Centres and Police Stations are overcrowded. It is preferable to settle disputes traditionally,” he said.

Over 50 persons drawn from 17 local government councils including, their chairmen, security personnel, traditional rulers, civil society organisations, religious leaders among others participated in the programme where each community peace and safety partnership narrated how their conflicts were resolved without Police or court of law.

Some of the participants revealed that Yobe state which faces conflicts of Boko Haram insurgency among other crises like farmers/herders, need to adopt dispute resolution approach across all communities in a bid to mitigate some of the conflicts witnessed.