Fresh efforts at resolving the protracted internecine clashes in Plateau State have begun with President Goodluck Jonathan meeting with leaders from the warring sides.

The first leg of the exploratory meeting which began late on Monday, ended at about 1.30 am Tuesday at the State House, Abuja, and was attended by stakeholders from the state who suggested that the Federal Government should review and implement all previous reports on the crises.

Northern elders of Berom extraction were led by the former Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Jacob Buba Gyang, who is the Gbong Gwom Jos, to the meeting held behind closed doors.

Gyang, according to sources, told the president that the implementation of recommendations of past probe reports would help in ensuring justice for the victims of the ethno-religious clashes that have claimed thousands lives in nearly a decade.

The second leg of the meeting, brokered by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Bello Dasuki, will be held Wednesday between Jonathan and Hausa-Fulani leaders at the State House.

Sources told THISDAY Tuesday that the meeting provided a forum for frank discussions between the president, traditional and political leaders from the beleaguered area on how to end the age-long clashes between Berom and indigenes of other ethnic stock in Plateau State and the Hausa-Fulani, which have been fuelled by crisis over the indigene-settler dichotomy.

It was learnt that at the end of the meeting, the Berom leaders were mandated to produce a report detailing solutions to the crisis from their own perspective.

The report, and another one that the Hausa-Fulani leaders would be expected to produce after their meeting Wednesday with the president, would be the basis for a third meeting of an enlarged stakeholders’ conference that will precede a general meeting of both communities with the president at a later date.

It was learnt that the meeting focused on the conflict over the control of the territory by the indigenes and settlers and other contentious issues, including the demand by the Hausa-Fulani for their own traditional ruler.



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