Bokkos (Plateau) – The Bokkos Local Government Council in Plateau has unveiled a code of conduct document to regulate the use and management of shared natural resources within the locality.

It was supported by the Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) and the Justice and Human Development for Peace Initiative.

Bokkos, a purely agrarian society, has in recent times witnessed several unrest arising from clashes between local farmers and herdsmen.

Speaking at the launch on Thursday in Bokkos, Mr Sendi Dauda, NSRP’s Programme Officer in charge of Women and Girls, Economic and Natural Resources, said the document came out of series of interactions with communities in the area.

He said the aim of the document was to help achieve lasting peace.

“Our dialogue committee held several meetings with leaders of both major actors in terms of usage of natural resources within area.

“We conducted a baseline studies and noticed that the only way to achieve lasting peace is by having a law that will regulate the use of natural resources in this locality.

“This code of conduct is different from others, because it is community based.

“The leaders of various communities demanded that a regulation should be put in place so as to curtail conflicts among herders and farmers.

“It is the initiative of the people not ours; we only keyed in to help facilitate the process as promoters of peace, ” he said.

Mr Redzie Jugo of Black Palms Consult extolled the relevance of the document to achieving lasting peace in the locality.

He said with the people agreeing to use the document to work for lasting peace, the people would now fully tap the huge agricultural potentials of the area.

Jugo expressed the hope that the council would translate the document into a bye-law for the good of the people.

He urged state governments across the country to careful study the document with a view to adopting it in their areas of jurisdiction, so as to promote peaceful coexistence.

Unveiling the document, Caretaker Chairman of Bokkos local council, Mr Luka Bwoi, said the document was timely as it would boost efforts of all well meaning people to enhance peace building.

Bwoi, represented by the Supervisory Councilor for Works, Transport, Lands and Survey, Abraham Matis, urged the people to abide by the provisions of the document as it was their initiative.

The local council chairman assured that the local government would liaise with security agencies and the communities to penalise anyone caught violating any provisions of the code.

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Plateau’s Bokkos LG unveils code of conduct to curtail herdsmen-farmers troubles