…Benue/Nasarawa communal feud spills into Taraba

From Yusah’u Alhassan Jalingo.

The Taraba state government has said that the communal feuds between Fulani herdsmen and Tiv communities in the southern part of the state is a spillover of the crisis from Nasarawa and Benue states.

The Taraba Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Ate Sale Kundu, stated this in Jalingo while addressing newsmen on the measures put in place by government to contain the crisis in southern part of the state.

Kundu said the crisis was between two friends who had shared things in common as playmates, describing same as conflict of interest which should not be misconstrued to mean religious crisis.

He also attributed the escalation of the crisis in southern Taraba, particularly in Wukari, Ibi, Donga and Takum local government areas to activities of miscreants who were interested in disrupting the peace

to scare people and loot their properties.

According to the commissioner, the state government has taken stringent measures which included deploying of solders and mobile policemen to the affected areas to ensure the protection of lives and

properties, as well as stop miscreants from continuing with their mischief.

He assured that the soldiers and the mobile police would intensify patrols in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, a high-powered committee has been set up by the Taraba state Acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar to visit and monitor the spillover of the crisis between Fulanis and the Tivs in the southern part of the state, and identify possible ways of assisting victims.

The committee, which is headed by Speaker of the Taraba state House of Assembly, Josiah Sabo Kente, has some legislators, commissioners, political, traditional and community leaders from the affected areas as members.

Kundu made this known while addressing newsmen, and appealed to people who had fled their houses to return and those wanting to flee to be calm as government was working hard to ensure lasting peace in the affected areas.