No country can survive a religious crisis – Osinbajo cautions

Following the recent attacks that claimed the lives of scores of people in some communities in Plateau State, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on Monday advised stakeholders in Plateau State not to allow religious crisis to occur in the country, saying no country in the world has ever survived a religious crisis.

It would be recalled that scores of people were at the weekend killed and property worth millions of Naira destroyed in some communities in the State.

But while addressing Stakeholders from the communities affected by the attacks at the weekend in Jos, the VP said, “We must not allow in this country a religious crisis that becomes uncontrollable, and if this sort of things continue to happen, we will have the kind of crisis that no country in the world has ever survived,” he advised.

“So I want to urge all the leaders to show more restraint especially in what we say.

“Nobody can survive a religious war, so I want to urge everyone of us to exercise some restraint, by being as civil as possible, even in the way that we engage as we go forward.

“It is the responsibility of each and everyone of us especially leadership of the communities to ensure that we are able to bring about the situation of lasting peace.

“We must make sure that we don’t allow anybody get away with that sort of killing.

“Unless we seize the moment to ensure that this is not allowed to continue, we may have greater problems in our hands.

“I know already the Inspector General of Police has deployed men, and today the Chief of Defense Staff has also communicated to the President that he has deployed Special Forces here, that is the military, to ensure that there is peace, to complement the efforts of the Operation Safe Haven.

In his welcome remarks, Governor Simon Lalong, sued for calm among the citizenry.

Lalong said he was surprised and disappointed when he heard about the Berom/Fulani incident because of the efforts both sides have put in place to ensure lasting peace in their communities.

“If I said I’m disappointed about what happened, it’s an understatement, because they set the road-map for peace in this State,” he explained.