Plateau Peace Agency, journalists, brainstorm on insecurity

By Kingsley Chukwuka

The Plateau State Peace Building Agency (PPBA),  on Friday engaged Media practitioners to brainstorm on ways to curtail the increasing rate of insecurity in the State.

The PPBA established by an act of legislation in February 2016, had a primary mandate of preventing violent conflicts and consolidating on the peace currently being enjoyed on the hitherto conflict ridden State.

Although with great success achieved since it’s establishment, the Agency constantly seek ways to improve on it’s mandate.

However, bringing Journalists on a round table dialogue to access the Agency’s operation and to welcome suggestions for improvement, the Director General of the Agency, Mr. Joseph Lengmang said engaging the Media has continued to help the Agency to look inwards at its objective and function of conflict prevention and peace building in the State.

The forum tagged “Monthly Media engagement to take a cursory assessment of the statutory mandate of PPBA from the perspective of the Media vis-a-vis it’s function of conflict prevention and peace building in the State“, Lengmang said the issue of insecurity involves everyone and cannot be left in the hands of government alone.

According to him: “This forum provides opportunity for journalists to assess, advice and proffer options for preventing breach of peace and rid the State free from criminals and criminal elements”, Lengmang said.

However, making their contributions, journalists were able to formulate strategic approach in improving conflict reporting, thereby agreeing that kidnapping, gangsterism, cultism, terrorism, banditry are all crime against humanity, and should be reported as terrorism.

Journalists also agreed that the method of crime irrespective of the nomenclature, has also graduated from the farmer/herder conflict.

Our correspondent reports that the “Monthly Media Engagement” is sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and will be holding under the “peace core” of the farmer herder conflict of the PPBA module.