The Niger Government has donated cash and relief materials worth N26 million to victims of the Military/Gbagyi clash that occurred in August 2015 in the state.
Alhaji Ibrahim Inga, Director-General of the State’s Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) made this known on Wednesday at Bosso Local Government secretariat while presenting the materials.
28 persons died while 26 others sustained various degrees of injuries in Kpaidna, Kopan Bambe, Legbe-dagma and Lunku in Bosso Local Government Area during the incident.
Inga attributed the delay in distributing the relief materials to the communities to the investigation on the cause of the incident.
He decried the unfortunate incident, which allegedly claimed the lives of 16 civilians and 12 soldiers, adding that measures had been put in place to avoid future occurrence.
Inga noted that the cash and relief materials were not compensation for lives that were lost, but government’s intervention to bring succor to their relatives.
“After the incident, a committee was set up by Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger to investigate the actual cause of the clash between military and members of the communities.
“What we are doing today is government’s assistance to victims.
“Those who lost their lives will be given assistance of N400,000 each, while victims who sustained injuries will be given N100,000.
“The victims will also be given food items such as rice, maize, palm oil, ground nut oil and textile.
“We are giving the same assistance to the families of soldiers, who died in the clash,” he said.
Earlier, Gov. Bello, advised the victims to remain calm and avoid taking laws into their hands for peace to reign in the state.
He advised them to see the deaths as an act of God and always report all matters to the appropriate authority instead of taking law into your hands.
“It took us this long to give relief assistance to you because of the sensitivity of the incident, we had to do a thorough investigation to know the actual cause of the ugly incident,” he said.
Bello, who was represented by Alhaji Mamman Musa, Commissioner for Water Resources, said that government was strengthening the traditional institutions to approach such issues using traditional method to avert communal clash.
He explained that plans were underway to increase police outpost in volatile Local Government areas to manage all communal crises.
Similarly, Alhaji Isah Wakili, Chairman of Bosso Local Government, commended the state government’s intervention and appealed to the people to be law abiding in their domain.
He said the council had encouraged series of interactions between herdsmen and farmers in the community to settle their differences and live in peace.
