A Peace advocacy group under the aegis of Southern Kaduna Peace Practitioners (SOKIPEP), has expressed confidence in Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), insisting that special task force has continued to prosecute its mandate of restoring peace and security in Plateau State, and parts of Kaduna.
According to the indigenous group, its vote of confidence was necessitated by a recent statement credited to the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, which called the leadership of OPSH to question.
In a statement, Sunday,by its National President, Rev. Dauda Fadia, SOKIPEP argued that the purported no confidence vote, was not representative of the peace-loving people of Southern Kaduna.
“The purported statement from SOKAPU is not the position of the good people of Southern Kaduna.
“As a peace advocacy group, SOKIPEP passes a vote of confidence in the leadership of Operation Safe Haven and all the troops of the internal security outfit for their tireless and professional efforts to keep the people of Southern Kaduna and Plateau State safe,”the statement read.
SOKIPEP said: “The call for the deployment of the OPSH Commander by SOKAPU is not only selfish…I think what a reasonable group should be doing is to commend the tireless efforts of the Operation Safe Haven and appeal to the military high command for more deployment of personnel to the area and not condemnation.
“About two days ago, another soldier was killed after killing several of the bandits who attacked a community in Bassa Local Government of Plateau State.
“How can you pass a vote of no confidence in OPSH when, as a matter of fact, Southern Kaduna would have been a shadow of itself if not for the operation? ”
While noting that,”Insecurity is a national problem that the federal government is working tirelessly to address”, SOKIPEP said:” For us as peace practitioners, we view this call as sentimental.
“We, therefore, call on all men of goodwill to ignore this call and work out workable solutions for peace and stability in Southern Kaduna,”it said.
“From our findings,Operation Safe Haven has been up and doing in the area, in kinetic and even non kinetic including providing humanitarian support for IDPs.
“Our candid appeal … is that they should begin community engagements with the youths in Southern Kaduna.
“They should begin to sensitize them on the need to stay out of criminality and drugs, instead of putting blame on the people making sacrifice to keep us safe”.
