By Oso Abidemi
President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Assistant on Community Engagement, Abiodun Essiet, has met with Plateau cleric, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, and leaders of Miyetti Allah as part of renewed efforts to strengthen peace in the state.
Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga, in a statement on Sunday, said Essiet was deployed to Plateau as a peace emissary to engage religious, traditional, and community leaders over rising tensions in parts of the state.
During her two-day visit, Essiet held discussions with Dachomo, the regional chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi, on the role of faith-based leadership in promoting unity and social development.
She also met with Miyetti Allah representatives and addressed widows, conveying President Tinubu’s message of ethnic reconciliation.
Essiet later met Fulani leaders in Barkin Ladi to encourage dialogue between pastoralists and farming communities, before conducting a workshop on establishing a community peace structure across the 17 Local Government Areas of Jos.
She also held a closed-door meeting with the Irigwe community, Miyetti Allah, and youth leaders from Bassa LGA, focusing on sustaining peace and strengthening the 17-member peace committee working on reconciliation between the groups.
Onanuga noted that a key early success of the visit was the resolution of a dispute involving the destruction of a farm in Gyel district of Jos South, which had led to the seizure of two cows.
Essiet reiterated President Tinubu’s commitment to inclusive governance and grassroots peacebuilding, emphasising that community-based peace structures are crucial to long-term stability in the North Central region.
