Inter-ethnic Conflicts: Act Now, Matawalle Begs Buhari

Inter-ethnic Conflicts: Act Now, Matawalle Begs Buhari

The Governor of Zamfara State, Mr. Bello Matawalle, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take a decisive action to stop the inter-ethnic violence in parts of South-west.

Matawalle made the call yesterday through a statement signed by his spokesperson, Mr. Zailani Bappa.

The governor issued the statement in reaction to the violence on Friday at Shasha market in Ibadan that pitted hoodlums from two ethnic groups against each other.

The governo condemned what he described as “ethnic discrimination and regional dichotomy” in Nigeria, and appealled to Oyo State Governor, Mr. Seyi Makinde to douse the violence in his domain.

Matawalle, who sympathised with the victims of the ethnic attack, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive action on the spate of violence gripping some South-Western states and gradually turning into criminality.

“It is inexcusable that at this stage of our journey as a nation, we are yet to come to terms with the fact that God has made it a destiny for us to live as one people. It is unfortunate that while our counterparts elsewhere are fusing up from particularity to generality as a people, we are fast sliding backwards from semblance of generality to particularity as a people’, Matawalle said.

He noted that ethnic hate and regional dichotomy will not lead the country to whatever Nigerians think they can gain out of it but backwardness and doom.

“I also urge my colleague, the Governor of Oyo state to take concrete steps in curtailing the ongoing senseless attacks and ensure that such happenings do not occur again. We are battling with insurgency and banditry as a nation and here are supposed law abiding citizens unleashing mayhem on innocent citizens to compound the spate of insecurity in the country’, Matawalle added.

“We must eschew primitive hatred against one another and learn to live with ourselves as one people. Our common enemy is not among those we live in the same community, buy and sell from one another, but those who take up arms against us in the name of banditry and insurgency,” he explained.

Related Articles