The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Taraba crisis

  • 11 feared killed in Taraba crisis

    Eleven persons were reportedly killed in a crisis in Lau Local Government Area of Taraba State at the weekend.

    Suspected killer-herdsmen went on a the rampage in Kunini village on Saturday, killing eight persons. The killers, who invaded at night, set many houses ablaze.

    Lau has been in crisis since January, leaving at least 141 persons dead and most of the villages destroyed.

    Violence resurfaced last Thursday at a Masquerade Festival in Wailawa. Two persons were injured.

    On Friday, Commissioner of Police David Akinremi deployed a team of policemen to support the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to end the skirmishes.

    But the policemen were ambushed by the rampaging bandits and two of the bandits were killed in a gunfire.

    Two persons were arrested and some weapons, motorcycles and charms recovered.

    A statement by Misal said: “On August 2, the command received a distress call that during a traditional masquerade festival initiation in Wailawa, fracas erupted between the leaders and settlers; two persons were injured. “The situation was controlled following the intervention of the Lau Divisional Police Officer.

    “However, the following day, the commissioner of police deployed additional patrol teams in the area to complement DPO. But on arrival, a peace meeting was called and during the meeting, gunshot was heard from the surrounding communities which caused tension.

    “The teams brought the situation under control but some houses had been burnt, with two persons killed and six injured.

    “While efforts were on to restore peace, information was received that Garin Tafida Village was attacked by hoodlums in a reprisal and patrol teams were drafted there. But the team was ambushed by armed men on motorcycles and in the ensuing gun fire, two of the bandits were killed. Two were arrested and some of them escaped with injuries.

    “Items recovered included two motorcycles, five cutlasses and assorted charms.”

  • Land dispute behind Taraba crisis, says governor

    Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku has said the crisis in the Mambilla was neither religious nor ethnic, but land dispute-induced.

    He reiterated that there is no alternative to ranching as a solution to the crisis of confidence between herdsmen and farmers.

    Ishaku spoke at an interactive session with reporters in Abuja.

    His words: “The recent crisis in the Mambilla was all about land; it was not ethnic or religious. The 3 per cent population of the Fulani on the Mambilla owned practically all the land. While this is not their fault, the 90 per cent Mambilla are left scrounging for land. This was the basis for the conflict, much like in some parts of the Southeast.

    “The challenge would be to solve the land ownership problem which the government is looking into. People with claims over land would have to prove it. I can assure you that there is no plan to forcefully take land away from owners, but justice must be done.

    “If there is a better option to good cow production, or a better method to stop cows from rampaging and causing the destruction, please let us know. But for now, and I think all over the thinking world, ranching is what you find”.

    The governor denied allegation of taking sides in the crisis.

    “As a father to all, I do not discriminate. My philosophy is to equate one life with others. Perhaps, I’m the only one who knows how deeply hurt I feel when I hear of the death of any Taraba citizen due to crisis or for any other reason.

    “Of the things my people look up to me for, the preservation of their life and property is number one. If I fail in this, I’ve failed totally. That’s why I said I will give my life; I would rather be sacrificed than any Taraba person, no matter the tribe, religion or status.  I would not sleep until there is peace everywhere,” Ishaku added.

    Ishaku, who assured the reporters of openness and cooperation, said he has ensured the digitisation project of the state-owned television and radio stations.

    He said: “I consider myself a friend of the media and have always sought ways to ensure a better relationship. Back in our state, we are actively pursuing the digitisation of our television and radio outfits.

    “We now have 17 hours of television, and the radio is also enhanced because we have phased out obsolete equipment. We believe someday we can have 24 hours TV. We have a newspaper, the Sunrise newspaper, that has now relapsed but we are working to revive it.

    “What we did was to take their over 80 workers and subsumed them into other ministries for their salaries. When we are done digitising, we shall go back to the paper.”

     

  • Dangote donates N50m to victims of Taraba crisis

    Dangote donates N50m to victims of Taraba crisis

    Foremost businessman Aliko Dangote has donated N50 million to victims of the clash between farmers and herders on the Mambilla Plateau, Sardauna local government of Taraba State.

    Dangote said the donation will alleviate the suffering of victims who have been displaced from their homes.

    The businessman also condoled with the government and people on the demise of former Governor Danbaba Suntai.

    He made the donation when he visited Governor Darius Ishaku in Jalingo, yesterday.

    Dangote also signed an agreement with the government to invest in farming, particularly in out-growers seeds and fertilizer.

    “I am here to show that we, as a company, are very serious about investing in agriculture. Our investment in cement grew from zero to 45 million tonnes, and in few years, it would grow to about 80 million tonnes. That is the trajectory we are looking at in agriculture,” Dangote said.

    He promised to empower the immediate communities and not only to enrich his company, if given a clement environment to operate.

    Responding, Ishaku said: “We have built a 7.5km road from Jalingo to Kona, and designing another road to Lau. By next time, we shall drive smoothly to Lau. What you (Dangote) only need is infrastructure; to clear all the encumbrances.

    “I believe the projects will showcase Taraba to the country and the world. Dangote’s visit will unlock the keys of Taraba to business successes. I welcome Dangote, not only as a brother, but because of his courage in making things happen. I admire him too.

    “It is idleness that makes people fight. I want to change Taraba from a civil service state to an economically vibrant one.

    “Dangote’s visit today is the beginning of that programme, and by the time I leave office, Taraba would have become economically-vibrant.”

  • Miyetti Allah seeks panel on Taraba crisis

    The National Chairman of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi, has called on the government to raise an independent judicial panel of enquiry to investigate the Tarraba crisis.

    Abdullahi, who addressed a news conference yesterday in Nasarawa State, was represented by the association’s National Secretary, Salleh Alhassan.

    He feared that justice will not be served by the Taraba State government-constituted panel as it had been accused of complicity in the crisis.

    His words: “We want an independent judicial commission of enquiry from the Federal Government into the Tarraba Mambilla killings.

    “The Taraba State government is party in this case; they cannot be a judge in their case. We are accusing them of organising these killings, so how can they constitute a panel and we will get justice, it is not possible.

    “There is no sign from the government, particularly the governor, showing him ready to ameliorate the suffering of victims.

    “We thank security agencies for their response. But for whoever knows the terrain and geography of the mambilla plateau, it is not where a detachment of the military can cover, it is a mountainous area.

    “Even yesterday, there were isolated killings on the mambila. So, the onus lies on the governor, as the chief security officer of the state, to respond adequately by calling his people to order, to stop the massacre of our people.”

  • ALGON rejects calls for emergency rule in Taraba

    The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) on Tuesday rejected calls for a declaration of a state of emergency in Taraba over the recent ethnic clashes in parts of the state.
    The state Chairman of the association, Mr. Kallamu Alhamdu, expressed the views of his members at a press conference in Jalingo.
    Alhamdu commended the Acting Governor of the state, Alhaji Garba Umar, and the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Josia Kente, for adopting steps to end the crises.
    “We are disappointed by the demand of some people to call for a declaration of a state of emergency in Taraba.
    “Such people did not mean well for the state and we shall continue to rise against their divisive tendencies,’’ the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the ALGON chairman as saying at the forum.
    Alhamdu said there was hardly any family in Taraba that one would not find Muslims and Christians living together in harmony before the unfortunate crises.
    He appealed to the people of the state to shun violence and embrace peace for rapid development.
    The press conference was attended by the 16 council chairmen in the state.

  • ‘Resolve Taraba crisis’

    A group, the Nigerian Human Rights Community (NHRC), has warned that the unfolding political development in Taraba State will lead to anarchy, if not resolved.

    NHRC Coordinator Samuel Olorunwa said the people have not enjoyed the dividends of democracy since Governor Danbaba Suntai was involved in an accident.

    He said: “We are worried that the Inspector General of Police has not investigated a forged letter to the House of Assembly, which was said to have been written and signed by Governor Suntai.

    “We, in the human rights community, call on the IGP to inform the public on who wrote the letter.”

  • PDP ‘undecided’ on Taraba, Anambra crises

    PDP ‘undecided’ on Taraba, Anambra crises

    The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appears to be undecided on how to address the festering political crises in Taraba and Anambra States.

    The PDP controlled Taraba is currently in crisis as a result of sharp divisions between the camps of ailing Governor Danbaba Suntai and Acting Governor, Garba Umar.

    Ailing Suntai was brought into the country in an apparent near vegetable state on August 25, after a 10-month medical sojourn abroad. On arrival, he had to be assisted off the chartered aircraft that brought him to Abuja.

    While his loyalists are insisting that he had resumed duty, the Taraba Assembly had mandated Umar to continue governing the state in acting capacity, they declared him unfit to continue as the state chief security officer.

    The Nigerian Constitution did not envisage the existence of Governor and Acting Governor administering a state at the same time.

    However, the newly inaugurated National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, at its meeting on Monday, did not discuss the Taraba problem, despite strident calls by stakeholders in the state for the national leadership of the party to make its position known on the crisis.

    Briefing journalists after a meeting, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said the issue of Taraba did not come up at the meeting. The meeting was chaired by the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

    “We did not discuss the issue of Taraba at the meeting because the matter was not listed on the agenda. I will raise the matter in our next meeting and feed you back on whatever position the party takes,” Metuh said.

    The spokesman also said the meeting did not discuss the problem in Anambra State, where two parallel candidates have emerged as PDP flag bearers for the November 16 governorship election in the state.

     

     

  • Settle in the interest of Taraba – APC

    Settle in the interest of Taraba – APC

    Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Taraba State, Senator Joel Danlami Ikenya, on Monday advised Governor Danbaba Suntai and his deputy Alhaji Garba Umar to settle their political differences in the interest of Taraba people, for the state to move forward.

    Ikenya was governorship candidate on the platform of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the April 2011 general election.

    He spoke to The Nation on Monday, while reacting to the political impasse in the state.

    Suntai returned into the state penultimate Sunday, after spending 10 months in Germany and the United States treating the injuries he sustained when a plane he flew crashed near Yola, Adamawa State on October 25 last year.

    His return to work polarised the state when he dissolved cabinet and his deputy countered it.

    Ikenya said the state is in crisis because those behind Suntai and Umar do not consider themselves as functionaries of one government.

    “If they consider themselves as one government, they would have settled their problem in the state quietly instead of dancing naked in the market square”, he said.

    He said Umar wants to take over so that he would secure an automatic ticket in the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the 2015 governorship election. While Suntai’s people particularly from the southern zone want him to continue so that he will relinquish power to them in 2015.

    He described players in the ensuing crisis as “desperate politicians who forget that power comes from God.”

     

  • From Yar’Adua to Suntai

    From Yar’Adua to Suntai

    Deputy Editor, Olayinka Oyegbile, writes on the link between the Taraba crisis and the late Yar’Adua’s sick drama, wondering why we must allow a repeat.

    Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac – Henry Kissinger

     

    History, that veritable subject, which those who draw our school curriculum have decided to chuck out of our school system, is about to repeat itself, this time around in Taraba State.

    Why is it that Nigeria is a country in which those in power decide to cling to it no matter what assails them? The drama going on in Taraba is too soon for anyone not to have learnt any lesson. Was it not in this country a few years back that we had a president who was so sick that it would have been better for him to abdicate power and attend to his health than cling on to it to his own peril?

    It was clear that the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was no longer able to have any control over his health. However, those close to him and who profit from his ill health were determined not to allow their “pot of soup”, if you excuse that term, to go. They knew that if he was not there they would never be able to feather their nests because a new person would come with his new friends, hangers on and favourites.

    At the end of the day, they ferried the man back home under the cover of darkness and were determined to hole him up there until God said it was all over. Now, because we failed to learn from history the same thing is playing itself out in Taraba State.

    Why are those surrounding Governor Danbaba Suntai bent on making him go through the stress of administering a state when it is crystal clear that he has no state of mind to do so? Is it not a case of them not wanting their “pot of soup” taken away from them because power is like a revolving door, you are either in or out. You can never be in-between.

    The power behind

    Women are known to be powers behind the throne and in this ugly and macabre dance in Taraba, what role is Hauwa, the wife of the governor playing? Is it not good for her to have sought guidance and knowledge from Mrs Turai Yar’Adua? Would the former First Lady not have been of good assistance to her to let her know that there is abundant life after power? I am sure she would have given her the benefit of her own hindsight to let her know that those who are trying to wail more than her do not love her husband more than her. They are only interested in their own selfish gains.

    I am still trying to fathom what Mrs Suntai thinks she is going to gain by allowing herself to join the band of those fair weather friends who corralled her to agree to bring her frail husband home when in actual fact it is clear that he cannot, at least under his present state of health, withstand the rigours his office demands. Or is there anything the court jesters are trying to let us know? Is it that occupying an office in Nigeria does not in any way demand any stress or effort?

    Why are people always afraid to leave the corridors of power? Years ago in Cameroun, former President Ahmadu Ahidjo gave up power when he was advised by a team of doctors that he could no longer cope with the strain. The same thing happened a few years back when the fiery Fidel Castro of Cuba ceded power to his younger brother. Today, Castro is still alive and his brother is presiding over the affairs of the country. Ahidjo lived for several years before he died.

    So, why are the jesters surrounding Suntai trying to force a man who is clearly under lots of personal trauma cling unto power till he drops dead?

     

  • Suntai: Taraba NASS caucus, Speakers back state Assembly

    Suntai: Taraba NASS caucus, Speakers back state Assembly

    … Say, ‘Umar remains acting governor’

    The Taraba State caucus in the National Assembly and the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria on Friday affirmed the ailing Danbaba Suntai as the undisputed governor of the state.

    The two bodies, however, backed the decision of the state House of Assembly that Garba Umar should continue in his role as acting of the state.

    They described the decision of the state Assembly in that regard as constitutional.

    The lawmakers also warned external influences against exploiting the situation to the detriment of the people of the State.

    While addressing reporters at the House of Representatives on Friday, Senator Abubakar Tutare said the unfolding political melodrama in Taraba State is unfortunate, shameful and uncalled for.

    Tutare was flanked by the House of Representatives Majority Whip, Ishaka Bawa, Ibrahim El Sudi and Aminu Malle, while Jerry Manwe, Albert Sam-Tsokwa and two Senators missed the briefing.

    The state has nine members in the National Assembly – made up of three Senators and six in the lower legislative House.

    Five members signed the statement of the position of the caucus.

    Tutare said, “Rather than be concerned about bringing development to the state, we are busy politicking with the health of our amiable Governor His Excellency, Danbaba Suntai.

    “Rather than uniting our people who are peace loving, dynamic and enterprising, we are busy dividing them and creating unnecessary tension for selfish reasons.

    “Instead of praying for Governor Danbaba’s speedy recovery, we are busy scheming, out smarting and outwitting each other for selfish aggrandizement or the unknown 2015 agenda.

    “As concerned Tarabans in the National Assembly, we sat and deliberated over the negative media hype pervading the already charged political atmosphere in the country and hereby plead with the various political gladiators within and outside Taraba State to allow peace to prevail in the state.

    “Our position is that His Excellency, Danbaba Danfulani Suntai is and remains the undisputed Executive Governor of Taraba State.”