The Gombe State Government has relaxed the 24-hour curfew imposed on Billiri Local Government Area of the state from 6 a. m to 2 pm (local time).
Announcing the relaxation of the curfew in Billiri town, Billiri LGA of the state, in a meeting with religious, traditional and political leaders on how to restore peace in the communities, Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya said the relaxed curfew would take effect from Thursday, 25th of February, 2021.
Sustain the peace
Governor Yahaya told the gathering that the essence of the meeting was to engage all parties at the local level to ensure the full restoration of peace and to sustain the peace being enjoyed in state over the years.
“As a governor, I swore to protect my people. I have no business being in power if I cannot protect my people. I can see that normalcy has been restored reasonably and as a result of which we now held peace talks.
The peace talk is between the Muslim and Christian communities and you can see that they embraced one another. That is what we expect of brothers and sisters.
What they did had really sorted out things and I believe normalcy has begun to come back and the request made for the curfew to be relaxed has been granted so the eight hours will give them the chance to help in the healing process,” Governor Yahaya said.
He said since the Christian community has agreed to collaborate with the Muslim community to console and seek forgiveness from the people who were affected, the curfew would help them both to move on.
The Chairman of Billiri Local Government Area, Ms Margaret Bitrus, while condemning the attacks on innocent citizens, pleaded for forgiveness over what happened on Friday last week, saying the people have realised their mistakes.
She said the violence was not a true picture of what the people were known for.
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Billiri Local Government chapter, Reverend John Joseph, appealed to the Muslims for forgiveness over the attacks on worship centres and business ventures belonging to them.
Reverend Joseph said the Christian community would visit the Chief Imam and together, they would visit and seek forgiveness from affected persons in the communities.
The Chief Imam of Billiri, Alhaji Abubakar Abdullahi however, thanked the governor for the peace move and said they never retaliated when they were attacked.
Alhaji Abdullahi, however, appealed to the governor to compensate those who lost their property and means of livelihoods to the violence.
Lateefah Ibrahim
