ICC Note: The Nigerian government is sponsoring a town hall event in order to try to bring community leaders together in the Agatu area of Benue where Fulani cattle herders murdered 500 Christians in February. While the idea seems noble and peace building, the idea that leaders can come together to discuss differences in the context of a mass murder event is disingenuous and unjust. The issue in view is not squabbles over cattle grazing versus farming rights, but that the blood of 500 Christian martyrs cries for justice in the face of mass atrocities. While discussion and mediation towards peace presents a helpful idea, the conversation that lacks holding murderous perpetrators accountable for their crimes is hardly a useful solution at all. 

By Karls Tsokar

3/24/16 Agatu, Nigeria (AllAfrica) – In a bid to douse the tension in some parts of the country, the Federal Government has completed plans to convene a National Town Hall dialogue between farmers and herdsmen in the country following persistent clashes between the two.

A statement issued from the office of the Minister of Interior Abdurahman Dambazau by his Personal Assistant on Media, Osaigbovo Ehisienmen said though the date was yet to be fixed, the planned dialogue is intended to bring critical stakeholders to a roundtable and fashion out ways to arrive at a solution to the seemingly unabating conflict.

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