The Center for Democracy and Development (CCD), in collaboration with Presidential Committee on Northeast (PCNI) on Friday, hosted a meeting with various stakeholders on ways to achieve dialogue, reconciliation and peace building in Boko haram ravaged communities of Yobe and the Northeast.
The stakeholders are community base Non governmental Organizations (NGOs), religious and traditional rulers from the affected areas of the state.
The Senior Programme officer, CCD, Mr. Musa Shalangwa, said the meeting, which was supported by MacArthur foundation, would harvest from the inputs of the stakeholders to develop a framework for transitional justice that is workable and acceptable by the affected people and communities.
He noted that the framework would cater for peace, justice and accountability issues that begin to unfold as a result of people returning to their ancestral homes following the relative peace in those areas.
"As both the victims and those that have perpetrated violence against the society are returning to the ancestral homes, some will want to take revenge, some would want compensation, or some may even want forgive.
"Our role is to facilitate the situation where perhaps there are kind of measures to take for the victims to forgive or demand action that would make them feel a sense of justice being delivered. So that those that have perpetrated violence against the society pay for it," he said.
He said the meeting was the first phase of dialogue to get from people that work in those communities on what they feel, think and the best way to handle the issue and assuage the feeling of the victims.
"While the second phase of the dialogue would directly involve the victims of the insurgency. In this, we will get their own views on what peace means to them, what can be done to satisfy them or make those who violated their rights accountable.
"Also, a peace in one community mean totally different thing in another community or government, that is why we tries to elicit different views and in different ways," he said.
Also speaking, the Yobe state coordinator of PCNI, Mr. Musa Damagum, said the stakeholders’ views, if utilized, would facilitate the establishment of durable peace and prevent reoccurance of the Boko Haram violance.
"Because, it would address the root causes and effects of the conflict through reconciliation," he said.
