NHRC raises panel over varsity, community dispute

THE National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has raised a three-man panel of mediators to resolve the long running dispute between the Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna and the host community of Gidan Kwano and other neighbouring villages.

The panel, which has Mr. Mamman Osuma, Mr. Jibrin Okutepa, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN); Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Justice, Nasarawa State, as members, has been mandated to ensure a peaceful resolution of all outstanding issues that led to the conflict.

A statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Lambert Opara, said Prof. Ben Angwe has expressed concern that the dispute had lingered on for so long without any enduring remedies, hence the resort to amicable settlement through a less technical approach.

Angwe, who said that the resort to reconciliatory approach was strengthened by the fact that the parties to the dispute would still remain permanent neighbours, urged parties to the dispute to embrace the panel for a peaceful settlement of the rift.

Osuma, while responding on behalf of other members, thanked the NHRC boss for the confidence reposed in the mediators, promising that the panel would do a through job, noting that the possibility of resolving the dispute between the parties stemmed from the confidence of the disputants on the intervention of the commission as a neutral body.