Ex-minister faults Tor’ Tiv over statement against Sultan

From Raji Bello, Sokoto

A former Minister for Youths and Sport Development, Alhaji Inuwa Abdulkadir has urged the Tor’ Tiv, Dr. Alfred Akawe Torkula to apologise for his statement against the Sultan and the Sultanate.

Inuwa, who insisted that he expected that the intellectual credentials of the Tor’Tiv to have come to bare and be used in discerning perceived politically instigated conflict from real conflict, equally noted that the Tiv and Fulani have a long known historical fraternity.

While urging Benue people to see the current wave of insecurity being experienced in some parts of the North as an orchestrated plot to sow seeds of discord in the region, Inuwa noted that it will be a miscalculation presuming or concluding that, the orgy of violence is been perpetuated by the Fulani ethnic extraction.

The statement read in part: “I read with dismay media report credited to (Dr.) Alfred Torkula, the Tor’Tiv, particularly a report in one of the national dailies (not Peoples Daily), where it was reported in a statement issued by the Tor’Tiv Chief Press Secretary, one Mr. Ber Godwin describing a comment made by His Eminence, Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto, on the report of farmers/herdsmen crisis in Benue and Nasarawa states as false.

“Something that puzzles me in the report was the insinuation that the violence in Benue was premeditated apparently by the herdsmen who are presumed to be of Fulani ethnic extraction, which may be doubtful given the long known historical fraternity between the Fulani and Tiv.

Given his position and that of the Sokoto people, Inuwa added, “To me, the summary of the report credited to His Highness Dr. Alfred Torkula has maligned the esteemed personality of His Eminence Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto as well as ridiculed the revered institution of the Sultanate”.