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Linus Oota, Lafia
The crisis ravaging the selection of a new Emir of Lafia appears to be eating deeper as a cabal in the emirate council has allegedly hijacked the selection process shutting out other three houses.
Members of the affected houses insist a cabal in the Emirate council plans to relegate more ruling houses in the process, maintaining that the move is unfair, and unjustifiably because they are eligible to contest for the stool of the Emir of Lafia.
This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the heads of the three ruling houses: Aliyu Sanda, Yusuf Ibrahim Jaji (Jarmen Lafia and Muhammadu Jibrin (Galadiman Lafia) respectively and made available to newsmen in Lafia.
The three ruling houses are Ari Laminu, Musa Danjaji and Musa Gana said the concern here has been that Dunama was not the only one that founded Lafia as paddled in some quarters. Lafia was collectively founded by a group of Kanuri royal warriors after traversing some parts of the country.
According to the statement “we find it imperative at this juncture to let the whole world know the broad day-light injustices meted out to the above three ruling houses, by recognising only Ari Dunama and Dallah Dunama ruling houses and excluding other ruling houses from contesting for the stool of the Emir of Lafia.”
They maintained that it was during the reign of Umar Dalla that the stage was set for the total removal of the other ruling houses by sub-dividing the Dunama ruling house into two: namely; Dallah Danama and Ari Dunama of the present Ungwar Doka and Kofar Kaura.
“It is also believed that it was from that moment in history that kingmakers were made to make a secret pledged to be selecting subsequent emir from the above-subdivided Dunama ruling houses rotationally.
“This injustice has been on for about a century and the other ruling houses have been fighting the injustice using all available legal means to have these anomalies corrected.
“Not until on April 23, 1976, when the government of the then Plateau State under the administration of Group Captain Dan Suleiman, of the blessed memory set up a judicial panel of investigation to look into the chieftaincy affairs in the whole Plateau State under the chairmanship of late Yahaya Muhammadu Kamam and recommendations were made,” he said
The panel after subsequently recognising two subdivided ruling houses in Lafia, also recommended that Ari of Laminu should be made a distinct ruling house for the fact that the Laminu had also established a ruling dynasty; the Laminu ruling house had produced an emir other than its founder.
“A white paper was made and subsequently gazetted on April 29, 1983, via Plateau State Legal Notice No. 8 of 1983 on the Lafia emirate (Declaration of the Native law and custom relating to the selection of the Emir of Lafia) Order 1983 that this ruling house should also be a distinct ruling house”
