Presidential aide meets Plateau cleric, Miyetti Allah in renewed peace efforts

Abiodun Essiet, the senior special assistant to the president on community engagement, has met with Plateau-based cleric Ezekiel Dachomo as part of ongoing peacebuilding initiatives in the state.

In a statement on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said Essiet was dispatched by President Bola Tinubu as a peace envoy to Plateau.

During her two-day visit, Essiet held discussions with Dachomo, who serves as the regional chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi. She also met with representatives of Miyetti Allah, as well as traditional and community leaders across the area.

According to the statement, talks between Essiet and Dachomo “centred on faith-based leadership and its role in promoting peace, unity, and social development”. The two also addressed widows in the community and “conveyed President Tinubu’s message of fostering ethnic reconciliation in the state”.

Essiet later engaged Fulani leaders in Barkin Ladi in a bid to “foster dialogue and mutual understanding between pastoral and farming communities”.

“Later in the day, she conducted a workshop on establishing a community peace structure for the 17 Local Government Areas in Jos,” the statement added.

The presidential aide also held a closed-door meeting with the Irigwe community, the Miyetti Allah group, and representatives of the Bassa LGA Youth Council.

“They focused on sustaining peace and discussed how the 17-member peace committee strengthens dialogue, reconciliation, and coexistence between the two communities,” the statement said.

It added that Essiet reaffirmed “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s unwavering commitment to peace and inclusive governance, noting that the Community-Based Peace Structure serves as a key instrument for grassroots unity, dialogue, and long-term stability in the North Central region”.

The peace mission reportedly secured an early breakthrough with the resolution of a dispute involving David Toma, owner of Agha Farm in Gyel district of Jos South, and some herdsmen, after Toma seized two cows that had destroyed his farm.

“On November 15, the MACBAN Chairman of BASSA LGA, Alhaji Isah Yau, paid a compensation of N500,000 to Toma, who subsequently released the cows. All parties signed an undertaking to embrace peace in the state,” the statement said.