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– Taraba group cautions
From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Tiv Cultural and Social Association (TCSA) Taraba State, has asked the security agencies and local authorities in the Southern senatorial district of the state to desist from tagging Tiv people, especially the IDPs in Wukari local government as bandits.
The President General of the association, Chief James Baka, who stated this in a press release on Friday, expressed dismay over the unfortunate continued tagging and branding of the Tiv people in Taraba, especially the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Southern part of the state, as bandits by some security agencies and local authorities.
“We wish to inform the general public that the Tiv people in the Southern part of Taraba, especially in Wukari Local Government Area have been displaced from their ancestral homes for over four years now, and are only seeking the state government intervention to return.
“We want to inform the general public that the Nigerian Army and local authorities in Wukari local government have deliberately tagged the Tiv IDPs in the area and some parts of Donga LGA, as bandits.
“They tagged them in such a way that any attempt to return to their ancestral homes attracts death or arrest in the name of bandits.
How can a displaced person who is helplessly seeking government security and relief materials to return home would be a bandit? Where does he have money to acquire weapons for banditry? We want anyone involve in such attitude to desist. “Just recently, some IDPs returned to Ikyernum and Tor-Iorshagher villages in Wukari, as well as Akinde village in Dona LGA, but were attacked and killed,” Baka said.
