JOS - THE Plateau State Government moved yesterday to checkmate an alleged attempt by a group to discredit the on-going Peace Conference designed to broker lasting peace among the people of the state.This followed the alleged plot by some people to introduce religious dichotomy into representation at the conference instead of the original criterion which was based on the various ethnic nationalities in the state.Vanguard learnt that three participants at the conference had written a letter to the state Administrator, Major-General Chris Alli (rtd.) threatening to pull out of the Peace Conference if a more religious balance was not reflected in the representation.
They alleged that the representation right now tilted in favour of a particular religion even while aware that nomination to the conference was not based on religious basis. Significantly, the petitioners gave September 7, 2004, (the commemoration of the 2001 crisis in Jos) as deadline to pull out of the conference if their request was not granted. However, it was learnt that the state government has initiated steps to ensure that the Peace Conference which it sees as crucial to the current peace process in the state was not threatened in any way. It was gathered that the three signatories to the petition were Thursday invited for a meeting with government officials who tried to disabused their minds that the conference was not a religious affair that required any balancing based on religious representation. According to a source close to the meeting, the petitioners were also told that government had no hand in picking participants to the peace conference since every ethnic nationality in the state picked its own representatives.
But the signatories were reportedly advised against issuing ultimatums or making insinuations capable of negating their assignment at the peace conference.They were further told that the opportunity of being participants at the Peace Conference should have been well utilized to address whatever grievances they might be nursing rather than resort to threats. Vanguard also gathered reliably that government was disturbed by the seeming determination of some people to introduce religious dichotomy into the peace process. As learnt, the petition by the participants coming on the heels of a similar submission by a religious leader during a recent parley by the administrator with them, that representation to the conference should have been on religious basis is sending signals of a possible agenda by certain people.
A source at the said meeting said the administrator made it clear that he did not want to be dragged into any religious controversy as he believed that representation through ethnic nationalities was the best way to get every group to participate at the conference.When contacted, Secretary to the State Government, Mr. John Gobak confirmed the meeting with the petitioners adding that “they left quite satisfied with the explanations we gave them.”Efforts to get the three petitioners for their reaction, however, failed as their colleagues at the conference told journalists that they were yet to return from an invitation by security men.
