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Panic and fear of unknown has enveloped some Tiv Communities in Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State as Nigeria military are allegedly mobilizing to forcefully occupy lands belonging to Tiv communities for reasons yet to be ascertained.
Sources disclosed that the Nigeria Army has continue to storm the areas with heavy arms and ammunitions, causing tension and apprehension as women, children and old men abandoned their homes and farm land and restlessly scampered for their safety for fear of unknown.
The sources told our reporters that communities earmarked to be occupied by the Nigeria Army include Saangu, Ali, Tse Abege, John Leke, Nyiancha and Atsaga Villages among many other households spanning across about four to five square Kms, along Wukari-Kente Road, Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State.
Speaking on a telephone interview with our reporter, a resident of the area, Mr Iormanger Akaaer, said the military officers stormed the Villages in the early hours of Tuesday with heavy arms and ammunitions without any prior-information, the situation he said had generated the panic and fear among the residents.
“We just wake up on Tuesday morning, only to see the military personnel going round our Villages and households surveying our lands. We were surprised by such act as nobody had earlier informed us of any development relating to mapping our communities. They went round, surveyed our households and mounted sign posts warning us to stay away from the areas.
“We are not comfortable with this arrangement. Nobody has ever explained to us as to why our villages, households and farm lands have to be taken over by the military personel. We are suspecting a fowl play. We are suspecting that it is a grand design to permanently push us out of our ancestral land.
“They had displaced all Tiv communities around the Local Government for almost five years now and nobody cares. From Wukari to Ibi, there is no any Tiv village that is still standing, likewise from Wukari to Tsunkundi, Wukari to Dan-Anacha and Wukari to the neighbouring Jootar in Benue State. Nobody care to go and mount military sign posts to help the people displaced in those areas returned to their ancestral homes because the mission has been accomplished in those areas.
“It is here, where few of our people, some of whom are those who fled in their destroyed areas are taking refuge that they now device another means to give us a final push using all the machineries of government. It’s very unfortunate. We are calling on the Federal Government to call the military to order. Let the military protect the displaced persons around Wukari surroundings to go back to their ancestral homes. They should not let us interpret this as a move to collude with our enemies to take over the remaining portions of our ancestrals land as we have earlier been suspecting”. Mr Akaaer stated.
Mr Organa Tyonem, another resident said the military had dared any one who would object their decision, as they came back the following day on and on to supervised weather somebody had tempered with the warning sign posts they have mounted in those communities.
When contacted the Public Relations Officer of the Six Brigade Command Jalingo, Lieutenant Col Oni said he was not aware of the development especially that he had just returned from an official assignment that took him away from the Command for a while. He however, promised to verify facts about the development and get back to our reporter but could not fulfilled his promise as at the time of filling this report.
On his part, the Head of Local Government Administration HOLGA, Wukari Local Government Area, Mr Tanko Abdulrahman who is presently in charge of the Council, told our reporter on phone that he was busy at the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs Jalingo and would call back in a short while but equally did not call back even as his phone was switched off.
Our reporter gathered that almost all the Tiv villages around Wukari, the Administrative Headquarters of Wukari Local Government Area, the home town of the incumbent Governor Agbu Kefas, were destroyed following the crisis between Jukun and Tiv in the area which began since 1st April, 2019.
It was also gathered that most of the people who fled their ancestral homes as a result of the crisis are still languishing as refugees around the neighbouring states like Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau and even beyond as any attempt to return home is resisted by either the local authorities or the military personnel stationed at strategic places around the Local Government Area.