THE General Assembly of the Catholic Diocese of Wukari in Taraba State on Saturday appealed to Governor Agbu Kefas to facilitate the return and reintegration of internally displaced persons to their ancestral homes.
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the First General Assembly of the diocese held in Wukari and signed by the Bishop, Most Reverend. Mark Maigida Nzukwein and Chancellor, Very Rev. Father Simon Akuraga.
The general assembly noted that the process of reconciliation needs justice and peace to flourish. This, it said, can only be possible when internal wounds caused by conflict are given measures through dialogue and conscience formation of the warring parties.
The statement read in part, “The past and ongoing conflicts in Taraba State especially in the Central and Southern parts is a complex phenomenon where thousands of people are being killed and displaced. In most cases, the conflicts are oversimplified, under-reported, or completely neglected. The conflicts are either about land, politics, and conquest.
“The church acknowledges that conflict has always been the bane of development and the cause of tension. Apart from killing an individual or group emotionally and spiritually, destructive conflicts hurt group cohesion, promote interpersonal hostilities, divert energies, create bad feelings, lead to high labour turnover, and costly litigations and it can even kill physically.”
