By Godwin Agia, Jalingo
The displaced population of Tiv extraction in Wukari LGA of Taraba state, on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest after 7 years in IDP camps.
The displaced Tiv community called on the federal and international communities to intervene and ensure justice in their situation to enable them to return to their ancestral homes.
The IDPs said, life has become unbearable, since the means of livelihood have been denied since 2019.
Addressing journalists after the protest in Kyado Benue state, Hon. Terhile Ahur, leader of the displaced persons taken refuge in the area, blamed the Taraba state, Wukari LGA and the Wukari traditional council for their uncooperative stands to ensure the return of the displaced Tiv population.
Ahur informed that while over one hundred and fifty thousand Tiv people in the Local Government have been displaced, and are taking refuge in Benue state, over 300 churches, 70 schools and 30 primary health care facilities belonging to Tiv have also been destroyed.
"It started like a mere clash between Jukun and Tiv in Kente village of Wukari in 2019. The situation escalated to what we are seeing as a deliberate genocide against the Tivs in the area.
The IDP leader lamented that all efforts made to resolve the crisis and enable displaced persons return to their ancestral homes were unsuccessful, due to the Seeming complicity of both Wukari and the Taraba State governments in the crisis.
Hon. Ahur also alleged that the Tiv people are tagged in the local government as "settlers", while their ancestral lands have been taken over and shared by the Jukuns and their allies.
"For the past seven (7) years, all efforts to return to our ancestral homes and farms in Wukari Local Government have proved abortive due to the seeming complicity of both the Local and State governments in the crisis.
"Our ancestral homes and farms have been taken over and shared by the Jukuns and their allies, with tacit support from both the Local and State Governments. Today, we have been tagged as "settlers" in the Wukari Local Government Area". He lamented.
The IDP leader emphasises that the political history of the area has proven beyond any contradiction that the Tivs were genuine indigens of Wukari LGA and Taraba at large.
"The history of our indigenship in Wukari and Taraba in general is clear". He insisted.
He disclosed that the history in most parts of the state was beyond the colonial period.
"In most parts of Taraba State, the history of Tiv existence is much beyond the colonial period. In the 1959 General Elections during the colonial era, Hon. Charles Tangul Gaza, a Tiv man, contested along with a Jukun man, Hon. Ibrahim Sangarı Usman, for the Wukari Seat in the Federal House of Representatives and won under the UMBC.
"Similarly, after independence, Hon. David Tagherga Mtuem and Hon.
Simon Ảwua contested and won as a member of the defunct Gongola State House of Assembly in 1979 and was re-elected in 1983. Hon. Iyoltyer Musa, a Tiv man, was appointed by the late Governor Abubakar Barde of the defunct
Gongola State, as Chairman of the Wukari local government in 1982. Similarly, Hon. Shinja Abako, a Tiv man, was also elected as Vice Chairman of Wukari Local Government Area in 1986. We demand an answer to the settler status". They clarify.
The IDPs also accused the Nigerian army of being complicit in the crisis.
"We want the entire world to know that the Nigerian army is complicit in our situation. In most of our villages in Wukari Local Government, Military Check Points have been strategically located, not for general peace but to deter our people from returning to their homes.
"We wish to inform the world that the killings against us in the local government are not just an eviction agenda, but a well-coordinated genocidal agenda against the Tiv and the Church. We call on the international Community, the Federal Government of Nigeria to act fast in order to stop the gross abuse of our Fundamental Human Rights.
"We wish to draw the attention of the International Community to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of genocide in 1948. We wish to state that our situation is more than genocide, and we want the authorities to act fast.
"We call on the Chief of Army Staff to investigate the activities of his men deployed to Wukari Local Government for peacekeeping". The IDPs asserted.
While appealing to President Bola Tinubu to facilitate their safe return to ancestral homes and farms, the IDPs call for the replacement of independent and unbiased security personnel to protect the Tiv on their return. They also call for the provision of relief materials to ease their hardship.
