IN order to encourage religious harmony among the two main religious faithful, the Senior Special Assistant to governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa on Security, Engr. Moses Utondu Saturday donated 15 cows and other items to the Muslim faithfuls with a call on all Nigerians to show love to one another and preach peace for the unity of the country.
Speaking at the distribution of that sallah gifts to Muslims in his senatorial district in Lafia, Utondu said the festive season be used to reconcile with one another irrespective of religious differences, encourages acts of kindness, charity and humility among the people of the state.
“The celebration of sallah is a holy festival and what ever you do should show the reason why you are celebrating, this is because both Christianity and Islam preach peace, therefore anybody celebrating the festival of salah after fasting for 30 days in the month of Ramadan should be peaceful.
” As a stakeholder and a lover of religion and as part of a government that has done so much for the people of the state, I feel it is very important for me to felicitate with my Muslim brothers and sisters and to show solidarity and support to the government in power.
” The governor alone cannot go round and touch the lives of all the people of the state. It is therefore our duty as his own appointees to support him by way of welfare and showing gestures to the people because by so doing, we will be more attractive to the people and they will also show their support to the governor and government of the state,” he said.
He, therefore called on party ward chairmen and councilors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress ( APC) as well as traditional rulers to ensure that the gesture gets to the Muslim beneficiaries.
Speaking further, an aide to the governor on Security matters, disclosed that the state is leveraging on community based peace and security mechanism to assist in its fight against insecurity.
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He added that the leadership of Governor Abdullahi Sule has designed a peace and security mechanism known as “Community Based Peace Mechanism” involving prominent stakeholders including traditional rulers , religious and opinion leaders as well as the youths to help identify black spots in the state.
While noting that the strategy was yielding results as both the security agencies and stakeholders were collaborating using the method to arrest criminal and bring them to book, he explained that system was providing a platform for all stakeholders, traditional rulers , political class as well as the religious and opinion leaders to be involved.
“It is a proactive method of security mechanism that we use in addressing security challenges before a breach in security occurs. This is because when you allow a breach to occur, it will result to monumental damage both in material and human resources, therefore when ever we hear of any insecurity rumour, we quickly swing into action and prevent it,” he said.
The SSA commended Governor Sule for his peace initiatives geared towards uniting the people of the state inspite of their religious and ethnic differences, calling on the people of the state to support the governor on his re-election bid in 2023.
In an interview, one of the beneficiaries, Aliyu Ibrahim expressed appreciation for the gesture and called on other appointees of government and other Nigerians to emulate Engr Utondu
