Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku Wednesday faulted comments made by the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 3 Division of the Nigeria Army, Brig-General Benjamin Ahanotu on the recent crisis on Mambilla Plateau, Sardauna local government area of Taraba State.
Ahanotu, on visiting the scenes of the killings and destruction in the area on a motorbike, had described the incident as “genocide, worse than Boko Haram massacre.”
In Gembu, Ahanotu told the Chief of Mambilla Shehu Baju: “I was shock with what I saw.
“Even Boko Haram did not slaughter women and children, but here I have seen young children and pregnant women slaughtered because of hatred.”
“The Fulanis were mercilessly slaughtered along with their cows.
“They (Fulani) are fellow Nigerians and indigenes of this area; they should be treated with dignity.”
At a security meeting in the Government House exco chamber, Jalingo, the GOC said he has never seen such a gruesome devastation since he started his military career.
Governor Ishaku, in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity Bala Dan Abu, said: “It was clear that Ahanotu was on a mission to satisfy some vested interests in the crisis.
“He (Ahanotu) has spoken in places in a manner unexpected and unbecoming of an officer of his rank and training.
“The Taraba State Government rejects in its entirety the deliberate and callous attempt by unpatriotic elements to tag the Mambilla crisis as genocide.
“The recorded casualty figure of 18 human lives as announced by the police and other security agencies that brought the fighting to an end obviously do not support that evil name-tag.”
Two groups, Taraba Pro-Democracy Organisation (TPDO) and the Good Governance Group (GGG) yesterday alleged the federal government was planning to declare a state of emergency in Taraba state.
A military source also hinted The Nation of a possible state of emergency in Taraba should investigations show that the killings on the Mambilla Plateau were genocide.
Our source added that a plan (of state of emergency) was in advanced stage, but the federal government was only awaiting findings to ascertain whether the Taraba State Government had a hand in the killings.
Minister for Women and Social Development Senator Aisha Alhassan had alleged that “the Governor, Darius Ishaku and the Speaker Peter Abel Diah of asked the people to go and fight.”
Senator representing Central Taraba, Yusuf Yusuf, who made a call for an emergency rule in Taraba State, said over 200 Fulanis with their over 20,000 cows were massacred.
Reacting to a front page comment in Daily Trust publication of Monday, July 3, entitled: “Genocide in Mambilla,” the governor said “the killings were no genocide but a clash between herdsmen and farmers.”
He described the newspaper’s editorial judgment as “biased and discriminatory,” and equally faulted it for “heavily relying on the reckless, highly partisan and distorted account of the Mambilla crisis by Brig-General Ahanotu.”
“In that editorial comment the newspaper laboured painfully to give the ugly tag of genocide and ethnic cleansing to the unfortunate crisis that occurred recently between herdsmen and farmers in Mambilla.
“The paper’s editors failed to perform their professional duty of subjecting information on the crisis to independent investigation through their own reporters and other field men.
“Rather, they chose to believe the outrageously partisan and fraudulent figures of death of people and cows as given by Fulani leaders who were party to the crisis,” Ishaku said.
He added: “The newspaper’s curious silence and failure to label the massacre of indigenes of Southern Kaduna by Fulani as a case of genocide and ethnic cleansing has apparently exposed the partisan direction of Daily Trust’s editorial standpoint on issues in which the interests of its pay masters are involved.
“The Mambilla crisis was an unfortunate clash of people who have lived together for decades as neighbours.
“The crisis was unfortunate and it has been condemned as wrong by respectable voices from around the country.
“The Taraba State Government has deployed men and materials to the affected areas to give succor and help quicken the healing process. What the government expects is support for this effort and not the evil act of promoting sentiments that can only worsen the peace process being pursued by government.
“Enough is enough of this mischievous effort to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it
