Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has warned that the federal government will not allow any person or group to disrupt the peace of the nation.
The Minister’s submission comes in reaction to the quit notice issued to Fulani herdsmen in Oyo State by Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho as well as the vacation order issued for the herdsmen to leave the forest reserves of Ondo State by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.
Aregbesola in a statement titled ‘A time to put unity and peace above all’, noted that the swords of war that have already been drawn on the issue should be sheathed.
The statement shared on his social media pages and made available to newsmen by the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Mohammed Manga, on Tuesday said the situations in Ondo and Oyo States should not be allowed to escalate further.
Aregbesola said, “In light of the simmering tension in Ondo and (northern regions of) Oyo states, the Federal Government implores all citizens in the country to exercise restraint and pursue active efforts on how to use the tools of constructive dialogue, good neighbourliness and the primacy of peace-building as ways of dousing anger and resentment that can only lead to anarchy.
“The regrettable incidences of heightening ethnic and religious tension in our country are, in part, outcomes of political and economic strains that have persistently defined our land and continue to exacerbate security challenges, making the task of development more traumatic.
“There will be no tolerance for any act or behaviour capable of jeopardising law and order and security of lives and property in any part of Nigeria.
“Therefore, as the government is fashioning long term answers to address these problems, it urges citizens to appreciate that self-help and lawlessness cannot offer a path to sustainable solution. It can only lead to greater pain as well as costly human and material losses and disruption of the already difficult task of devising responses that will produce tangible peace and development in the country.”
Meanwhile, the Presidency has insisted that the service chiefs replaced by President Muhammadu Buhari did not fail in their service to the nation.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina stated that it was only time to inject fresh energy in the fight against terrorism and other security challenges confronting the country.
According to the presidential aide, President Buhari commended the outgoing service chiefs.
He said: “The fact that they have to leave today does not mean they have failed. No, I wouldn’t think so. It is just that it is time to have fresh energy, fresh blood and fresh ideas in the theatre of battles where the military is involved in the country.”
Naija News reports that President Buhari on Tuesday appointed new service chiefs for the nation after he sacked the previous ones.