From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Anxiety is brewing in Mambilla Plateau as elders of the community have raised the alarm over alleged moves by some Fulanis to grab their lands on the axis of Taraba State.
The elders in a statement, yesterday, signed by Hamanjoda Nyiwa, frowned at the decision of Governor Darius Ishaku to re-ascertain whether Maisamari is under Nguroje or Kamkam Chiefdom.
The elders also wondered why Governor Ishaku chose to ignore the reports of an earlier commission and administrative panels which defined Maisamari as part of the historical Kamkam territory.
While alleging that Ishaku was conniving with his business partners to exploit the situation to grab their ancestral lands to achieve his selfish goals, the elders queried: “why would the governor want another (third) investigation on the same matter when he had two previous reports on the same status of Maisamari? A Judicial Commission of Inquiry and an Administrative Committee had both investigated and reported to him. This third attempt, pushed forth by the close friend, is obviously an attempt to rubbish the two earlier investigations. If we are looking for a third ‘real status’, what do we call the previous two?
“We are suspicious of these endless investigations, especially as so much anti-Mambilla hate comments in the last few years have come from that criss-crossing figure claiming to be the best ally and his associates.
“We are alarmed by the undisguised, post and prejudicial plan of government to find another ‘real status of Maisamari and its environs’, which gives the obvious impression that despite two previous reports, the current status of Maisamari as part of Kamkam Chiefdom is not ‘real’ and the ‘real’ is still being sought through a third report on the same issue.
“We are all aware that this status has recently been settled by a long and painstaking investigation and findings of the Justice Nuhu S. Adi Judicial Commission of Inquiry in the recent 2017. What then made it “become necessary” to review the Nuhu Adi Commission and another committee findings and recommendations?
“We are aware that a certain overbearing Fulani spearhead in government, credited with the remote and proximal causation of most socio-political crisis in the area and in governance generally, has openly voiced his intention to overturn the Justice Nuhu Adi Commission findings and upset the applecart. Indeed, he worked hard to scuttle the Justice Adi Commission report. We are not oblivious of all subterranean moves made by the same person since that utterance.
“We are aware of the man’s lies and constant deception of the powers, including his false alarm to the governor that the safety of his tea farm at Benena (Maisamari) cannot be guaranteed if he left it under Mambilla control. And so the Mambilla Nation is put up for sale on this basis. We can recall the undisguised statement of a certain Fulani figure in the 1990s to the effect that they would do all in their power to carve out a Mbororo kingdom on Mambilla soil.
“Little did we know that it would be insidiously introduced using the apparatus of the state government and then expanded by degrees over our ancestral lands. It is now first Maisamari, but they have other areas too in their long-term plan. We are aware of the destabilisation going on in Kuma chiefdom next door, Kabri, Gembu, Mbamnga and Kaka. Again, Barup District of Kamkam and several others are targeted for dismemberment, but a committee is sought to rubber-stamp it. They are denied a peaceful coexistence.
“On the other hand, total protection of Nguroje’s peace has been ensured and not even a ward head has had any sleepless nights there. We also know that the Fulani ultimate interest is to takeover the entire land of our ancestors from us, having begun first as ‘only inside Nguroje’, and next to use the powers that be to expand to the rest of Mambilla. We wish to state that this new “another commission upon commission” is thought out in bad faith and intended to satisfy a vested interest as forestalled. Besides, the governor’s statement has prejudiced the findings the ‘another commission’ might wish to make since he has implied that the current situation is not “real,” the statement read.