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Peace plan: Cash-for-guns
22/05/2004 16:12 - (SA)
Jos, Nigeria - The new administration in Nigeria's strife-torn central Plateau State has offered hefty cash rewards in exchange for surrendered arms and ammunition as part of initiative to secure peace following a Christian militia attack in which over 200 Muslims were killed.
An official statement late on Friday here urged all individuals and groups in possession of firearms to surrender them at designated centres in exchange for cash rewards running up to 200 000 naira (about R10 000).
It also promised cash rewards to any person or group with useful information on arms caches, while the source of the information would be protected against police action or prosecution.
The statement, signed by secretary to Plateau State government John Gobak, set June 7 as closing date for the surrender of illegal arms.
It said that the newly-appointed state administrator, Chris Ali, is gravely concerned about the proliferation of firearms in private hands.
"All citizens should be aware of the danger illegal and prohibited firearms pose to peaceful coexistence," the text said.
About 55 000 people, mostly Muslims, fled their homes in the state to seek shelter in neighbouring states to escape ethnic attacks, officials told reporters.
A simmering three-year-old dispute between Tarok Christians and Hausa-Fulani Muslims for control of southern Plateau's farmland exploded on May 2 when Tarok militiamen slaughtered more than 200 Muslims in the town of Yelwa.
Following a long pattern of attack and counterattack, Muslim fighters responded with bloody raids on Christian villages.
President Olusegun Obasanjo last Tuesday declared a state of emergency in the state and sacked its governor, Joshua Dariye.
Obasanjo has branded the latest violence a threat to the "security and unity of the nation" and re-appointed Ali, a former Plateau State military governor, to restore order.
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