From Victor Gai, Jalingo

The Tiv and Fulani ethnic groups, living in Takum and Katsina-Ala local government areas in Taraba and Benue states respectively, who have been at loggerheads, have agreed to embrace peace.

The decision was reached yesterday during a joint security meeting between the leadership of the two councils.

The meeting, which took place in Takum, brought together security chiefs, traditional rulers, stakeholders from the two ethnic groups, council chairmen of Takum and Katsina-Ala, among others.

In their various submissions, they agreed to eschew acts capable of dragging the two councils as well as the states backwards.

Although all hands, including those of the security chiefs, were pointed at the direction of the Tiv youths as the major perpetrators of the vices bedevilling the areas, the need for all parties to go back to the drawing board and caution their people on the need to abide by the resolutions reached, was said to be more important.

Takum chairman, Shiban Y. Tikari, who could not fathom why the Tiv have refused to let sleeping dogs lie, said the persisting cases of kidnappings, armed robbery, killings by unknown gunmen in the council “has become a threat to lives plying the roads”.

Wondering why kidnapping, armed robbery, killing and other crimes do not occur in other communities except in Tiv settlements, the need for the Tiv leaders to always expose persons behind such ill acts, he said, would help in flushing out criminals.

Agreeing with his Takum counterpart, the council chairman of Katsina-Ala, Ateral Alfred Avalumun, warned the Tiv youths to, as a matter of urgency, cease from ills capable of jeopardizing the peace of the two councils and the two states at large.

He also enjoined traditional rulers from the Tiv extraction to desist from shielding youths who engage in crime.

The leadership of the Operation Whirl Stroke and that of the police who said the much needed peace would have been restored back to the areas, but for the Tiv leaders, who they agreed always shielded those perpetrating the crimes and urged the leaders to assist them to flush out criminals from both councils and the states at large.

Unanimously accepting to give peace a chance, speakers from both the Tiv and Fulani extractions, urged the security operatives not to go to bed pending when those behind the crimes were made to account for their evil deeds.

In a joint resolution, both parties, the monarchs and the two council chairmen, agreed that “as security is a joint responsibility, there is a need to contribute to the local peace committee in the border villages to liaise with security agencies.”

Both parties agreed to desist from sending negative messages to their fellow brothers, stressing that “all should cultivate the habit of giving vital information to security agencies to ease their operations.”

Elated by the development, both the Tiv and Fulani who spoke with our correspondent expressed the belief that if stakeholders at the meeting stand by their words, the much desired peace would soon return to the states.