New move by some stakeholders to broker peace between the warring Tiv community of Taraba State and Jukun community of Benue State yielded some level of success as the communities signed a peace deal that will lead to cessation of hostilities. FANEN IHYONGO reports that the 30-man committee insisted on a ceasefire between the communities to allow peace to reign.
THE Jukun and Tiv ethnic groups of Southern Taraba have been at daggers drawn for some time now. Several efforts made in the past to bring about lasting peace between these two neighbours have been futile. For about six months, the two ethnic groups have been at war.
However, fresh moves to resolve the crisis by stakeholders from Tiv and Junkun seem to bear fruits. The stakeholders succeeded in making the warring communities sign a new peace deal, even as they called for suspension of hostilities.
The stakeholders have directed that all road-blocks in the affected communities should be dismantled and all local markets in the areas reopened.
They also called for the release of all victims who were kidnapped during the hostilities. They also urged government to provide relief materials and ensure the return of all displaced people to their ancestral homes.
At the two-day peace talks which held at the weekend, the 30-man committee insisted that there should be a ceasefire to allow peace to reign.
The committee, set up by Governor Darius Ishaku, has 15 representatives from the Tiv and 15 from Jukun communities. The representatives were drawn from the affected areas which include Wukari, Donga and Takum.
This is the second committee to be set by the governor since the crisis erupted on April 1.
The first committee, which had five representatives from Jukun of Taraba and five representatives from Tiv of Benue State, was rejected by a Taraba Tiv youth group for the non-inclusion of Tivs from the affected areas.
It was gathered that the committee, which was mobilised with N30 million to stop the violence, sat for most or all of the time outside Taraba and could not achieve success, as the killings continued.
Hundreds of Jukun and Tiv have lost their lives to the crisis while properties, including homes and food stuffs estimated at billions of naira have been destroyed.
The Federal University in Wukari was shut down as violence spilled to the campus.
The crisis is an offshoot of a lingering feud based on a claim by the Jukun that the Tiv are “settlers,” in Taraba State, and therefore, have no ownership rights to the land they occupy.
The conflict first erupted in 1959. It reoccurred in 1980, 1990, 2001 and this year.
The latest crisis reached a crescendo when a 42-year-old cleric, Rev. Fr. David Tanko, a peace broker, was killed and set ablaze. The priest’s murder prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to call for a peace dialogue between Tiv and Jukun from Taraba and Benue states respectively.
During the meeting, which was held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom proposed that the Federal Government should set up a commission of enquiry into the crisis.
But Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku strongly objected to the idea of bringing a “stranger” into the matter. He suggested that “the problem is ours; it’s an internal problem; we shall look into it and resolve it.”
Upon his return to the state, Ishaku set up the new committee and gave the warring groups a seven-day ultimatum to sheathe their swords for the committee to work effectively.
The new committee, which has been hailed by all as likely to succeed, is to examine and bring to an end all issues underlying persistent violent clashes between Jukun and Tiv ethnic groups.
The committee held a peace dialogue in the Executive Chamber of Government House, Jalingo the Taraba State capital. In their midst were the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Anthony Jellason, representatives of the police, army, Civil Defence Corps and the Department of State Services (DSS).
Others in attendance included representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and other religious bodies as well as representatives of the Jukun, Tiv and Etulo communities from the affected local government areas. All the attending groups made their presentations.
The meeting was chaired by the Taraba State Deputy Governor, Haruna Manu, who, together with the SSG on behalf of the state government, signed the communique that was issued at the end of the meeting.
Danjuma Adamu, Markus Ikitsombika and John Mamman signed the communique for the Jukun community while Jime Yongo, Kurason Kura and Isaac Waakaa signed for the Tiv community.
The communique reads: “Speakers at the meeting condemned the crisis and stressed the need for cessation of all forms of hostilities between the two communities to pave way for the peace building effort being spearheaded by the state government.
“The crisis had been hijacked by criminals from both the Jukun and Tiv communities and therefore, the two communities should expose the criminals among them.
“We also resolved to, henceforth, stop reprisal attacks or revenge from both parties, but report all forms of security breaches to security agencies for appropriate action.
“There is need for the government to take deliberate steps to encourage the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) to return to their homes, since adequate security operatives have been deployed in the affected communities to protect lives and property.”
The committee advised the Jukun and Tiv communities to be wary of rumours that are capable of inciting them and destabilising the peace process.
One of the signatories of the communique, Danjuma Adamu, revealed that during the peace meeting, the committee split into Team Tiv and Team Jukun to sketch their submissions.
“We in the Team Jukun were just clapping as the Tiv made their presentation. The issues they raised were exactly the same with ours, as if they spied or copied from us.
“So, it was not difficult marrying or harmonising the two submissions. We just adopted them.
“That was victory number one. It means the problem is an internal one, and we know it. It means we can solve the problem by ourselves.
“In doing this, we must be sincere to ourselves. Any criminal element among us must be fished out, punished and treated as a criminal. With this, the committee shall succeed,” he told The Nation.
Also in a chat with The Nation on the telephone, Isaac Waakaa, a Tiv member of the committee, said the committee will achieve the needed result.
Waakaa said: “The committee will succeed because it captured the actual environment of the crisis and the people that are directly affected.
“If there is crisis in Taraba because someone is killed in Taraba, and you bring somebody from outside to resolve the matter, it will be an exercise in futility, because the outsider is not familiar with the terrain, the people and their cultures.
“In this committee, we know all the people representing the Jukun community and they know us all.
“Secondly, all the issues the committee has raised are genuinely correct. The next step is to look into the issues, which is what we have started.”
Waakaa, however, noted that the Jukun/Tiv crisis is a “recurring feud” as such; the committee would need time in tackling the issues involved.
“Our work is a peace-building process that is not achievable in a hurry,” he said.
He observed that there are other personalities who were not invited to be part of the committee.
“In trying to solve a problem, you involve everybody concerned. In this case, you involve them to aid the peace-building process, not to truncate it. That is why we are going to consult those out there who are not members of this committee whom we are convinced know better than we do.
“So, everyone affected is involved. We are only representing them in tackling the issues. So far, I don’t think there is any shortcoming with the committee, and I am sure it will succeed,” he said.
