25th January, 2017
Mr John Gaul-Lebo, the Speaker, Cross River House of Assembly, has called on the Federal Government and the Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai to initiate a meaningful dialogue to end the Southern Kaduna crisis.
Gaul-Lebo made the call on Wednesday in Calabar.
The speaker further urged that the dialogue should involve relevant stakeholders such as community leaders, traditional rulers, religious leaders, political class and youth leaders among others.
He said that the dialogue became imperative in view of the raging violence in that part of the country, adding that it had claimed a large number of innocent lives and must not be allowed to continue.
“Both the Federal and Kaduna state governments should take immediate steps as well as medium-term measures to halt the killings and restore normalcy in the affected communities.
“People should resist the temptation of politicising the ongoing violence to avoid escalation and creating further instability in the country.
“Government should apprehend, prosecute and if possible, penalise the perpetrators of this heinous crime.They must not go without punishment.”
Gaul-Lebo also called on security agencies to maintain steady presence and be on alert in the affected communities, to check reoccurrence of the violence.