Obasanjo Proposes Reconciliation Commission for Plateau
From Kola Ologbondiyan and Ahamefula Ogbu in Abuja
President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday wrote to the National Assembly to consider and pass a bill establishing a reconciliation Commission for Plateau State.
It is tagged "A Bill to make provision for the Plateau State Unity and Reconciliation Law, 2004 and Establishment of A Reconciliation Commission".
The President, in his letter, said the Commission arose from the need to effect complete conflict resolution, dialogue so that see to it that all citizens of the state forgiver each other.
He listed the objectives of the Commission as:
To establish as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights which were committed during the period from June 2000 to May 2004, including the antecedents, circumstances, factors and context of such violations as well as the perspectives of the victims and the motives and perspectives of the persons responsible for the commission of the violations, by conducting investigations and holding hearings;
To facilitate the recommendation of granting amnesty, reprieve or forgiveness to persons who make full disclosure of all relevant facts relating to acts committed in the course of the conflicts;
to establish and make known the fate and whereabouts of victims and to restore the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations of which they are victims;
To inquire into the question whether such violations were the product of deliberate state policy or the policy of organs, institutions, individuals or whether they arose from abuse by the State officials of their office or whether there were acts of any political organisation or other groups and individuals and recommend measures which may be taken to redress past injustices and to prevent and forestall future violations or abuses of human rights.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, had after reading letters informing the House of the cross carpeting of two Alliance for Democracy (AD) members, Hon Animashaun Oladokun and Femi Onimole to the Peoples Democratic Party, read the President's letter.
The lawmakers cited the crisis in the AD as reason for their defection."
Onimole specifically said that the party now lacked direction and could no longer discharge the duties expected of it by the public since it has "lost focus and direction.
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