The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Taraba State

  • Taraba killing: Mba’s frank questions

    The killing of three police intelligence officers by solders at a checkpoint in Ibi, Taraba State, last Tuesday, is indeed unfortunate and puts a big question mark on the sincerity of some members of our security forces to curb indiscriminate cases of kidnapping and other crimes in the country.

    How can three of some of the best hands in the county’s Intelligence Response Team, reputed to have successfully carried out similar operations, be shot in daylight under the guise that they were suspected kidnappers?

    Contrary to the claim by the Army, the police have insisted that the state police command was aware of the presence of the slain officers in the state. The Force Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Mba, in a statement, said the soldiers shot the policemen despite sufficient proof that they were on legitimate duty and released the suspected kidnap kingpin, Alhaji Hamisu, being taken to the police state headquarters.

    If the amateur video released on the incident is anything to go by, the soldiers apparently did not exercise enough caution in handling the situation to ascertain the identity of the detectives.

    Even when one of them who did not immediately die from the gun shot tried to get the attention of the soldiers and the people around, nobody cared until he slumped and died.

    For security forces that are supposed to be working as a team to checkmate the kidnapping menace to be engaged in claims and counter claims over an avoidable incident, there is a major security loophole which the National Security Council has to carefully investigate and come up with how to fish out those who may be colluding with criminal elements among men and officers of the various security forces.

    No substantial progress can be made in all the conflict areas as claimed by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, as long as there is no proper coordination between the various security forces.

    The committee to be set up under the Defence Headquarters to investigate the circumstances that led to the killing has ready questions to answer as rightly stated by the police spokesman.

    • Where is the notorious kidnapper, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume ‘rescued’ by the soldiers?
    • How and why was Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume released by the soldiers?
    • How could a kidnap suspect properly restrained with handcuffs by the police escape from the hands of his military rescuers?
    • If Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume is a ‘‘victim of kidnap’’ as claimed, and properly rescued by soldiers, why was he not taken to the Army base for documentation purposes and debriefing in line with the Standard Operating Procedure in the Nigerian Army?
    • Why were the police operatives shot at close range even after they had identified themselves as police officers on legitimate duty as evident in the video now in circulation?

    Unless the above questions are honestly answered in the report of the committee and necessary recommendations are made and actions taken, the supposed battle against kidnapping in the country will be a huge joke.

    There is an urgent need to check the high rate of kidnapping across the country which has become very worrisome. Kidnapping has suddenly become a profitable business for criminals with many gangs operating wherever they choose to and collecting ransom.

    The Taraba incident is an indication of how the kidnappers might have infiltrated our security forces and we can’t wait till a very top executive is kidnapped before a state of emergency is declared on the matter.

  • Tension as suspected militia group kills two Tiv students, one other in Taraba

    THE crisis between Tiv and Jukun ethnic groups in Wukari local government area of Taraba State has taken a different dimension.

    Two students and a non-academic staff of the Federal University Wukari were abducted and killed on Thursday.

    Taraba State Police spokesman David Misal, an ASP, confirmed the abduction of the trio.

    “They were abducted at Kasuwan Shanu, near Chonku,” he said.  The authorities of the university has closed down the institution following the incident.

    The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abubakar Kundiri, told reporters that the slain students and staff, being Tiv, sparked off protest by Tiv students, which was joined by other students.

    Kundiri said the abductors had used the mobile phone of the non-academic staff to demand for ransom from the university’s management.

    The protesting students demanded for the bodies of the slain persons and relocation of the university. Tension was high, it was learnt.

    A Committee of Deans and Directors, on behalf of the university Senate, approved the suspension of lectures and closure of the institution till further notice. The committee asked the students to vacate the premises of university.

    The vice chancellor said security has been beefed up by the army and police to ensure the safe exit of students and staff from Wukari.

    Jukun and Tiv ethnic group have been at war for more than five months.

    The killings have increased tension between the two states as Benue State government yesterday evacuated over 812 students from the university.

    A witness, Jerry Lorgaen, told The Nation on phone that the students went out to buy provision before they were ambushed and killed by suspected Jukun militia group.

    The President of the National Association of Benue State Students, Tyonor Smith, identified those killed as Msughter Vihior Andura (a Micro Biology, 100 level student) and Mark Tsav (a non-academic staff).

    Read Also: 21 Taraba youths arrested as women protest

    The Community of Tiv Students (CTS) on Wednesday  protested the gruesome murder.

    They called on the university’s management to close down the institution or to give the Tiv students transport fare to leave the school.

    But, the Benue State Commissioner of Education, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar explained that the evacuation of Tiv students became necessary following the attack on Benue State students in the institution by suspected Jukun militia group.

    Ityavyar said buses were dispatched to bring the students home.

    He stated that the buses were accompanied by a detachment of troops of Operation Whirl Stroke, adding that the students would be dropped in designated points, including Katsina-Ala, Ugbema in Buruku Local Government Area as well as Makurdi, the state capital.

    “As a government, we are concerned about the security of our citizens. That is why the Deputy Governor Benson Abounu appealed to security operatives in Taraba to ensure the safety of the students,” he said.

    Hundreds of lives have been lost and properties, including foodstuffs, estimated at billions of naira , have been destroyed since the crisis started in Kente village on April 1.

    Since then, guns have continued to boom, with machetes slashing as death tolls rise daily. Homes are also being razed and plundered.

    Yet travellers are sometimes fetched from vehicles on the highway and massacred.

    Thousands in Wukari have fled their homes, which have come under attack as a result of the crisis, turning Wukari into a ghost town.

    The university had been in operation amidst fear.

    The Tiv-Jukun crisis is one of the protracted inter-ethnic feuds in the country, reverberating in intervals of 10 and 20 years.

    The conflict first erupted in 1959. It reoccurred in 1980, 1990, 2001 and this year.

    It was gathered that the major cause of the Jukun/Tiv conflict is the claim by Jukuns that the Tiv are “settlers” and not indigenes in Wukari, and that they have no ownership right to the land they occupy.

    The Tiv, on the other hand, use the longevity of their stay in Wukari to repel their settler status by claiming both land ownership and political rights in the area.

    These seeming claims, passed on to Jukun/Tiv offsprings, generate bloody scenes.

    Governor Darius Ishaku on Tuesday clocked 65 years, but there was no special event to mark the anniversary.

    He said he devoted the day to prayers, because of the killings. Many had thought Tiv and Jukun will enjoy the best of their interaction , owing to the fact that Governor Ishaku is Jukun but married to Tiv.

    But the situation is, however, different.

    Observers feel Ishaku and his counterpart Samuel Ortom of neighbouring Benue State have not practically done much to end the crisis.

     

  • Taraba enacts death sentence law for kidnappers

    The Taraba State Government has enacted a death sentence law for kidnappers.

    Governor Darius Ishaku, on Wednesday, signed into law a bill that prescribes death sentence as penalty for kidnapping and abduction.

    The bill was sponsored by the Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly Peter Abel Diah and passed with overwhelming support by members of the state House of Assembly.

    “The law is a product of government’s concern about insecurity in the state, particularly, kidnapping for money which is rampant in the state and other parts of the country,” the governor said.

    Read Also: 21 Taraba youths arrested as women protest

    No fewer than a hundred Taraba residents and visitors have been kidnapped, in recent times, sometimes from their homes. Many of the kidnapped were killed by the criminals.

    A House of Assembly member representing Ussa Constituency was kidnapped and killed after the governor paid a heavy ransom for his release.

    Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Hassan Mijinyawa, was also kidnapped with his driver. They spent days with their abductors before gaining freedom, after the governor had paid a heavy ransom.

  • Taraba youths protest against Ruga, call for implementation of ranching

    The youths in Taraba state on Monday protested the proposed Ruga Settlement by the federal government.

    They called on the state government to fully implement the open grazing prohibition and ranches establishment law passed by the Taraba State House of Assembly.

    The protest took place at the Jolly Nyame Stadium, under the leadership of Udi Adamu, the Taraba state chairman of the Nigerian Youths Council.

    The Taraba youths, in one voice, described the Ruga settlement as a coined idea and misplacement of priority of the current poverty, insecurity, armed robbery, banditry, and increasing unemployment that is currently facing Nigeria.

    Read Also: 21 Taraba youths arrested as women protest

    Some of the local governments involved in Taraba state include Lau, Zing, Ibi and Sarduana local government respectively

    The Youths Chairman said the Ruga settlement scheme is a threat to tribes in Taraba state and the nation at large, adding that fulani herdsmen troubling the state are alien tied with the ulterior motive to grab the lands of the original inhabitants.

    Comrade Udi doubted the fact that the federal government said the Ruga settlement will mitigate the kidnapping and killings by herdsmen and wondered why the federal government allow Fulani to settl in States like Taraba, Benue, Oyo, Ebonyi and others ignoring core northern States like Katsina, Borno, Sokoto, Kebbi and others.

    The protesters said they are unshackling and unwaveringly with the Taraba state government on the Ranching law which according to them is the best way to settling crisis between herdsmen and farmers in the state as accepted by people of goodwill across the globe.

    The youths called on the Taraba state Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, to enforce the open grazing and ranching established law 2017 for the sake for peace and harmonious living.

    Comrade Udi Adamu appealed to youths in Taraba to remain law abiding and support government genuine programmes and policies that are geared towards emancipating the people out of bondage of poverty and oppression.

  • Taraba: 51 killed in herdsmen/farmers’ crisis

    Not fewer than 51 persons have been feared killed in the latest clash between the herders and farmers in Taraba State, a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Cyriacus Kamai, said on Friday.

    The 51 farmers were reportedly killed in 11 villages of Ardo-Kola Local Government Area and suburbs of the state capital, Jalingo.

    However, the casualty figure of the herdsmen, and the quantity of the properties destroyed on both sides have not been released.

    April and May had been months of bloodbath in Taraba. While herdsmen and natives were fighting in northern Taraba, Jukun and Tiv also had a fierce clash in the southern part of the state leaving many dead.

    Both crises erupted because of the drive for farming lands and grazing fields.

    Rev. Fr. Kamai, a native of Kona in Jalingo who delivered a sermon at the Remembrance Mass for the 51 deceased held at the Church of Assumption in Kona village yesterday, said the 51 dead have been buried.

    The names and photos of the people killed were printed on elegant bill boards at the church were the their Remembrance was held.

    The congregation was in mourning mood.

    Read Also: Sanitation: Taraba govt, bans use of Polythene bags

    According to the cleric, the crisis has displaced 8,494 people from their ancestral homes in Murkunu, Murtia, Yaukani, Murbai, Yawai, Somporo, Jekunuhou, Sembe, Ndayaro, Kaudad and Keshabro villages.

    The priest who said the Kona people, though with so much pains in their hearts, had forgiven the herdsmen who carried out the attacks and killings, urged them to repent. “In this crisis, there is no winner and no vanquished. I know it is painful to say this, looking at the number of casualties we have had.

    ”But we pray God to turn the hearts of the bereaved, the injured, the displaced, widows and orphans and above all rest the dead.

    ”We also pray God to turn the hearts of those who commit the evil to true conversion of God’s desire.

    ”All the people who died are not dead but asleep with the Lord,” he said.

    The cleric called on the government to ensure the immediate repatriation of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their original homes so that they can go back to their farms.

    He also called for truce and “reunion of purpose between the warring communities.”

    The cleric, who visited President Muhammad Buhari in Aso Villa over the killings, thanked the president for promptly deploying soldiers who came stopped the killings.

    The Chief of Kona,  Kuru Augustine attributed what has happened to the “will of  God and called on the warring communities to give peace a chance.”

    He said: “Development can only be achieved in an atmosphere of peace, so we must give peace a chance,” he said.

  • Tiv/Jukun crisis: Ishaku urges warring factions to sheathe their swords

    Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State on Saturday urged the warring factions in the Tiv/Jukun crisis in Wukari Local Government Area (LGA) of the state to sheathe their sword and give peace a chance.

    Ishaku disclosed this in a statement by Mr Bala Dan Abu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity in Jalingo.

    “Gov Ishaku is greatly saddened by the news of the unfortunate renewed violent clashes between Jukuns and their Tiv neighbours in Kente and Rafinkada which occurred on Friday.

    “This latest crisis, like the ones before, resulted in the loss of innocent lives and the destruction of valuable properties.

    “The Jukuns and the Tiv living in the border communities have every reason to live together in peace, they are both farmers struggling to earn living mainly from the produce from their farms,” he said.

    Read Also: PDP’s Ishaku wins Taraba guber election

    The statement noted that Ishaku has since directed security agencies to move to the scenes in Kente and Rafinkada to curb the crisis.

    The statement quoted Ishaku as appealing to leaders of the communities to play their part by prevailing on their people to drop their weapons and to cooperate with the security agencies to ensure that peace is sustained among them.

    According to the statement, Ishaku also condemned the ongoing attacks and killings of innocent people in some farming communities in Ardo Kola and Jalingo LGAs of the state and the reprisal attacks thereafter.

    It warned that security agencies have been instructed by the governor to deal ruthlessly with those promoting the crises and killings in the state.

  • Kidnapping: Taraba LGA boss restricts movement of motorcycles

    The Caretaker Chairman of Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State, Mr Shiban Tikari,  Saturday  imposed restriction on the use of motorcycles in the council area from 7 pm to 6am,  to check kidnapping and armed robbery.

    Tikari told reporters  in Jalingo that  kidnapping for ransom and armed robbery has become a daily occurrence  in the LGA, adding that the operations are often carried out with the aid of  motorcycles.

    He said this informed the decision to ban the use of motorcycles in the area from 7pm to 6 am.

    The Chairman regretted that, in some cases, even after the ransom on those kidnapped had been paid, they still ended up being killed by their abductors.

    He added that many were still being held after payment of ransom, describing the situation as worrisome.

    Read Also: Election results: Taraba lifts curfew on Jalingo

    While commending the efforts of the Taraba and Benue governors in ending trans-border crimes, Tikari cautioned against politicising the issue of insecurity in the area.

    He appealed  to all “patriotic and peace loving people of Takum LGA, including those from the neighbouring communities where this criminality is taking place, to be more vigilant and help us and the security agencies with intelligence to check the menace.”

    He added:“Security is our collective responsibility and it is high time we all stood up to take positive steps toward tackling the security challenges in our dear local government.

    “All perpetrators of these criminal acts are advised to repent and desist from their criminal acts as the arm of the law will catch up with them if they fail to heed the warning,” he said.

    NAN

  • ‘Tiv not at war with Jukun’

    The President-General of Tiv Cultural and Social Association in Taraba State, Chief Goodman Dahida, has said that the Tiv people were not at war with their Jukunn brothers.

    Dahida told newsmen on Tuesday in Jalingo that the killings, burning of houses and looting of property going on in Wukari was the handiwork of miscreants from both Jukun and Tiv ethnic groups.

    Dahida said: “Tiv, as a people, are not at war with the Jukun nation and I don’t think the Jukun as a people have sat down to plan any war against the Tiv.

    “Our people are mostly farmers and their concern now is to prepare for their farms, especially as rain is about to return.

    “What happened in Kente was a misunderstanding that was not supposed to escalate, but the miscreants have capitalized on that to loot and make it appear as if Tiv and Jukun are at war.

    “I want to call on the Taraba and the Benue State governments to jointly put heads together and flush out these elements causing trouble in the area.

    Read Also: Buhari condemns Tiv, Jukun clash

    “Security agencies should take over the area and conduct intensive security operation to rid the area of criminals.”

    Dahida, who condemned the wanton killings and destruction of property recorded on both sides, called on Jukun and Tiv leaders not to allow criminals to infiltrate their ranks and cause problems among them.

    He frowned at the rumour making the rounds that Tiv people were in alliance with Fulani groups to fight the Jukun, saying that the insinuation was coming from “evil people working against peace in Taraba”.

  • Death toll rises to ten in Jukun-Tiv crisis

    Death toll in the bloody communal strife between Jukun and Tiv ethnic groups in Taraba and Benue states has increased from three to 10 persons.

    As at yesterday, the two tribes were still burning houses, shooting and killing people at the border towns between Wukari and Ukum local government areas.

    A witness, Terwase Kyado, said seven bodies were recovered from the bush near Tse Atsenge, which was completely raised down.

    Women with children on their backs were seen fleeing when The Nation visited the troubled areas.

    A 56 years old man, Tyohumba Dooga, told The Nation that he trekked three kilometres without water and food.

    He said two of his brothers have been killed in the attack when Jukun overran his community in Tse Atsenga and set the settlement ablaze.

    Read Also: Buhari condemns Tiv, Jukun clash

    But, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has called for peace and understanding between the Jukun and Tiv communities.

    He condemned the conflict, which has led to loss of some lives and destruction of property, rendering many people homeless.

    Ortom said he and his Taraba State counterpart, Governor Darius Ishaku, have taken far-reaching measures to end the conflict and restore lasting peace to the border communities.

    He appealed to the people of the affected communities to support the peace initiatives of the two states to prevent further conflicts in the area.

  • Fed Govt tackles Senate for padding votes

    The Senate erred by marking up the reimbursement approved for Delta and Taraba states by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), it was learnt yesterday.

    The Federal Government, which faulted the approval of N90.2 billion for contracts the two states executed on its behalf, also tackled the Red Chamber for not approving reimbursement for Bauchi and Kogi states.

    In a letter dated March 5, President Muhammadu Buhari said the National Assembly’s approval was in excess of the amount approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    The letter, read by Senate President Bukola Saraki,  reads: “Wish to inform the Senate that we have received approval of the National Assembly via letter ref: NASS/CAN/106/Vol.11 /004 dated 29th January 2019 for the refunds to Delta and Taraba state governments through the issuance of Promissory Note for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government.

    “The Senate may wish to note that following a review of the approval from the National Assembly, the following were observed:

    While the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a total sum of N78,601,631, 430.16 as reimbursement to Delta and Taraba State Governments, the National Assembly approved N90,236,461,031.36 which is higher than the amount approved by the FEC.

    Read also: Cut NASS salaries; no VAT hike

    The National Assembly did not approve any reimbursement to Bauchi and Kogi states government whereas the FEC had approved reimbursements for them.

    “The Senate may note the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2007 which empowers the Bureau of Public Procurement to approve vendors and contract sums.

    The amounts presented to the National Assembly for approval were duly certified for reimbursement by the BPP before they were approved by FEC.

    “Since the BPP is charged with the responsibility of approving contract sums and there is need for compliance with the BPP Act 2007, I wish to request that you forward to us details relating to the amounts approved by the National Assembly for Delta and Taraba states in excess of what was certified by the BPP, for necessary certification and approval.”