Gov. Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State on Monday said the state government has no plan to compensate victims of recent unrest in the state.
Yakowa, however, said while reacting to questions from State House Correspondents in Abuja that the government would continue to assist those affected by conflicts and natural disasters.
“We have had a lot of these crises over the years and when you talk about compensation, I’m very careful about using the word compensation.
“You can never compensate for loss of lives and property. When you have disasters at best all that you can do is to assist and from time to time we will assist,” he added.
The governor expressed delight that peace had finally been restored to the state, saying the government would continue to use dialogue to bring about peace and tranquillity in the state.
He disclosed that his administration had since commenced dialogue with stakeholders with a view to finding lasting solution to the security challenges in the state.
“The solution to all these problems is dialogue between the various communities.
“Last weekend, I initiated this dialogue the whole of Saturday I met with all the political stakeholders.
“I also met with members of the National Assembly who were elected from various constituencies, members of the House of Assembly, commissioners, and chairmen of local government councils and Advisers.
“All of these people came from different constituencies where we are having these challenges.
“I charged them that it is not only the responsibility of the governor; all of us have a responsibility to go back to our constituencies, to our wards, to our local government and preach peace.”
According to him, he also met with religious leaders where he urged them to ensure that their sermons in Churches and Mosques were aimed at promoting peaceful co-existence among the people.
Yakowa dismissed recent newspaper report that the security challenges in the state had negatively affected his relationship with Vice President Namadi Sambo.
He said “the story is not true, the Vice President is my boss and I have tremendous amount of respect for him.” (NAN)