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The Force Commander, Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), Major General Sunday Igbinomwanhia, has disclosed that the use of civil military cooperation had helped the troops in reducing the clashes between farmers and herders in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states.
Igbinomwanhia disclosed this on Wednesday at the stakeholders meeting which had in attendance stakeholders from the three states organised by OPWS.
Speaking at the meeting, the Commander expressed joy that the use of civil military cooperation had helped OPWS to succeed in reducing the clashes between farmers and herders in the three operational sates and expressed their commitment to reduce the clashes to the barest minimum.
According to him, security situation between farmers and herders had improved drastically as against what was experienced in 2017 due to the concerted efforts of OPWS through the use of kinetic and non kinetic means.
“This has greatly helped in reducing killings as well as criminality and has restored normalcy.
He further assured that the military will continue to review its tactics, techniques and procedures in order to always come up with implementable strategies to defeat adversaries.
He noted that “The mandate of the operation is to put to an end the incessant killings of innocent citizens by armed robbers, bandits, illegal armed herdsmen, militia groups and other criminal elements in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States.”
The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Benue state chapter, Mr Aondongu Saaku, said that both crop and animal farmers needed peace, lamenting that the continued clashes between the two was threatening food security.
Also, a member of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO), Dr Victoria Daaor, said that dialogue was the best option to broker peace between farmers and herders.
Daaor, therefore, commended OPWS for such a laudable initiative, saying that it was the right way to go to bring last peace between the two parties.
