THISDAYonline

The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, responding yesterday to the religious riot in Jos, Plateau State, has called on Muslims and Christians, across the country, to learn to live together irrespective of religious and ethnic differences just as the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Mohammed Sanusi urged the Federal Government to deal ruthlessly with those perpetrating religious crisis in the country.

Sultan Maccido who made the plea in Sokoto yesterday said that there was no reason to resort to violence to settle scores because it had already been destined by Allah that Muslims, Christians and pegans must live together as citizens of Nigeria.

"We therefore have no alternative than to accept to live together in peace with one another. There is no dispute that cannot be settled by peaceful discussion. Nigeria belongs to all of us. It is therefore our collective responsibility to keep the country as one united nation", the Sultan admonished.

While describing the Jos crisis as an unfortunate development, Sultan Maccido urged religious leaders to take appropriate measures to curb the violence.

Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Mohammed Sanusi while receiving the National Media Tour team in his palace urged the Federal Government to punish those formenting religious crises across the country stressing that Nigerians cannot enjoy the dividends of democracy in an atmosphere of insecurity.

"Without security, the people will not enjoy the dividends of democracy, the government has to punish those causing the trouble no matter how highly placed. We should not kill ourselves because of religion," he said.

Continuing, Alhaji Sanusi said "We need a very serious measure to deal with these religious crisis, otherwise our achievements under democracy will be meaningless. In fact we have to set an example now".

In a related development, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has urged Muslims across the country not to react negatively to the development.

"JNI is taking all necessary actions, in collaboration with the necessary authorities and religious leaders, to put an end to incidences of this nature, in future," the group said in a press statement in Kaduna yesterday.

In the statement signed by its Secretary-General, Justice Abdulkadir Orire, JNI equally asked soldiers drafted to keep the peace in Jos, not to take sides in the course of performing their duty.

It also urged Muslim leaders to exercise utmost caution and allow government to resolve the matter peacefully.

"The Muslim Ummah should recognise that the solution to such uncalled for killings is for them to unite because the enemy does not discriminate as to what sect one belongs. Jama'atu Nasril Islam is calling on all and sundry to give peace a chance and live in harmony."

Meanwhile, the Plateau State Commissioner of Information, Mr. Amos Azi yesterday said that the state government has already begun investigations into the probable causes of the senseless crisis which resulted in the loss of at least 50 lives and the destruction of several mosques and churches in the state capital.

Azi, who said last Friday's riot was not an ordinary misunderstanding between Christians against Muslims, disclosed that preliminary investigations had already indicated several factors which had economic, political and ethnic connotations.

The Information Commissioner assured the people that the state government will thoroughly investigate the causes of the crisis as soon as normalcy returns.

He added that any person or group found to have generated the problem will not be spared.

He warned that henceforth any further act of violence will be met with stiff and decisive response by the security agents.

In another development, the Plateau government has constituted a special committee to provide food and medication to displaced citizens of the state now taking refuge at the 3rd Armoured Division Headquarters, Rikuba Barracks, Jos, Police Station and in other secured places.

The government, which disclosed this yesterday at a joint press conference addressed by the SSG, Mr. Ezekiel Gomos and the Commissioner of Information, Mr. Amos Azi, disclosed that food items such as rice, beans and bags of gari have been bought and sent to the various camps while pharmacists and doctors have been sent to the camps to treat the refugees.

The Jos crisis erupted last Friday at about 2.30 pm after the Jumat prayers. It is alleged to be the culmination of pent-up rivalry between the Muslim Hausa/Fulanis and Christian indigenes in the Jos North Local Government Area.

Friday crisis which started around the Cono-russia area of Jos, swept through major areas of the city within minutes, as shops and offices were hurriedly closed, while residents ran helter-skelter for safety. Security was immediately beefed up around the Central Mosque to forestall an imminent reprisal from the Christians.

Commissioner of Police in the State, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed assured that his command was in control of the situation adding that his men were fully on the ground.

Only last week, THISDAY had in its report, warned that except urgent steps were taken, the fragile peace that had pervaded the rock city might be punctured.

According to that report, the subject of discord between the Christian indigenes under the umbrella of Plateau Youth Council, and the Muslim Hausa-Fulani, operating under the guise of Jasawa Development Association (JDA), was attributed to a statement purportedly issued by the JDA calling on the people of the area to vote a Muslim as the council chairman in the next local government elections.

Besides, the appointment of one Alhaji Mohammed Usman, a Muslim Fulani as the coordinator and chairman of the monitoring committee of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), might as well served to worsen the escalating relationship between the two sects.

The national secretary of JDA had, however, dissociated the group from the purported statement calling for a Muslim council chairman, though he maintained that members of his group as indigenes of the local government have equal rights like members of the Plateau Youth Council.

He argued that the Hausa/Fulanis arrived the area even before those who now claim to be indigenes; a claim debunked by the PYC's chairman, Yakubu Ibrahim Itse, who accused the Hausa-Fulanis of not only making ridiculous claims, but also fanning the embers of religious crisis.

Said Itse: "It is funny and insulting that a Hausa-Fulani man from Bauchi, Kano, Katsina etc. who is looking for trade settled in Jos among the indigenes of Afizere, Anaguta and Borom only to wake up one day to lay claim to a place leased to them for peaceful co-existence." He further called for the removal of Turakin Jos, Alhaji Inuwa Ali, from the Jos Traditional Council and the scrapping of all Hausa-Fulani chieftaincy titles in all traditional councils in the state.