Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has said that his happiest moment would come when peace returns to the area.

According to the governor, the target would only be achieved if communities, organisations and groups partnered the state in ensuring peace is fully restored to Plateau.

Lalong spoke in Shendam on Thursday while signing a historic road map for peace for all the communities in the five local government areas that make up the southern senatorial zone of the state.

The document was put together by the Geneva; Switzerland-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which is an independent private mediation organisation, with regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Speaking at the event, which marked the beginning of series of inter-communal dialogue process between the different communities in the zone, Lalong said that in the last two decades the people of the southern zone had suffered untold hardship due to incessant clashes between and among the various ethnic and religious communities in the zone.

He said that he was encouraged by the monumental strides of the organisation in restoring peace in the Northern senatorial zone of the state and in the southern parts of Kaduna.

Lalong said, “In early 2013, HD worked with the communities in Jos on an inter-communal dialogue process driven by the communities themselves, which has resulted in culture of dialogue to solve differences and translated into peaceful co-existence between the eight different communities of Afizere, Anaguta, Berom, Fulani, Hausa, Igbo, South-South and Yoruba.”

He expressed delight that it was the success of the dialogue process in Jos that took the group to Kaduna, adding that he was happy that the same success was about to be translated in the southern zone of the state.

Chairman of the occasion, the Archbishop of Jos, Most Rev Ignatius Kaigama, recalled the horrors of the crises in the six flashpoint areas of the zone and called on the people to exhibit the highest point of sincerity in the dialogue process.

HD Senior Advisor and Lead Mediator, Mrs. Alice Nderitu, said the organisation had the full backing of the Plateau State Government and the support of the German Government, adding that for the next six months they would engage the communities in the six flash points of Langtang North, Langtang South, Mikang, Qua’an Pan Shendam and Wase.

She said that the dialogue process would focus primarily on continuous cause of tension that include pastoralists/farmers conflict, internally displaced persons, cross border disputes between the local government areas, cattle rustling, land dispute, chieftaincy issues and claims, rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure and social amenities.

She added that the dialogue would also x-ray the role of government and security agencies in maintaining law and order, youth restiveness, gunrunning and proliferation.

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Lalong vows to restore peace in Plateau