The Director-General of Institute For Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR),Dr. Joseph Golwa has attributed the incidences of bomb attacks in parts of the country to persons bent on destabilising the nation’s peace and security in the name of politics.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a one-day public lecture on Criminal Justice System and the New Security Challenges in Nigeria, the institute’s boss expressed dismay at the growing record of terror attacks, even as he remarked that it had reached an intolerable level.
“For us as peace researchers and peace practitioners, the current level of threat to peace appears to be escalating at an intolerable scale.
“We are concerned that lives are lost because every life is sacrosanct; we are concerned that people are displaced and properties destroyed; we are concerned that the incessant violence is a major challenge to peace and stability necessary for the provision of dividends of democracy.
“We are concerned that distrust is fast creeping in among friends and colleagues. We are concerned that some people who are evil- minded have a penchant for playing politics with peace and security, as well as human lives, using their manipulations; we are concerned that conflict entrepreneurs are hiding under and wearing the toga of Boko Haram and terrorism to unleash mayhem on innocent people.This cannot be tolerated”, he said.
Golwa enumerated the root causes of Nigeria’s security challenges to be linked to political and electioneering conflicts, socio-economic conflicts, ethno-religious crises, ethnic militias, boundary disputes. Others he said are, cultism, organised crimes such as Boko Haram
In his address, guest speaker at the occasion, Prof. Mohammadu Taofiq Ladan stressed that cases of growing insurgency and deaths were indicative of a weak or failing criminal justice system in the country.
