Rose Ejembi, Makurdi and Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Tiv Youth Organization (TYO) has called on the Taraba State House of Assembly to commence an impeachment process against Governor Darius Ishaku for “unguarded, inciting and unpatriotic statements’ he made during the rent security meeting in Abuja between Benue and Taraba states chaired by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
A statement by the TYO President, Mr. Timothy Hembaor described as shocking, statements by governor Ishaku at the joint stakeholders meeting to resolve the imbroglio between the Tiv and Jukun in Taraba State.
Daily Sun gathered that Ishaku at the meeting had opposed a suggestion by Governor Samuel Ortom that the Federal Government should set up a commission of Inquiry to unravel the cause of the crisis and also proffer lasting solutions.
Ishaku was said to have insisted that he was capable of solving the problems. he was also quoted to have said that out of 3,000 teachers employed in the state, 400 were Tiv, and that a Tiv woman was also appointed as a commissioner into state cabinet. The TYO President stated that the Taraba governor had by his outing in Abuja, shown that he is parochial in thought, lacks the capacity to lead a heterogeneous society and harbours deep hatred against other ethnic groups in his state.
Said Hembaor: “governor Ishaku who was shockingly and visibly aggressive, spoke like a Jukun governor and not a Taraba governor.
He clearly took sides with his tribe’s men and described the constitution which he took an oath to defend as defective since, according to him, it has deprived his Jukun people the right to uphold their cultural beliefs and ancient traditional practices
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has raised the alarm that the unending ethnic crisis between Tiv and Jukum has made the journey on the Wukari-Katsina-Ala highway dangerous and suicidal for motorists and commuters.
CAN said the hostilities between the two tribes have led to the death of hundreds of people and decried why the two warring ethnic groups are reluctant to give peace a chance.
CAN said travellers who belong to either of the tribes are frequently arrested, killed or set ablaze, just exactly the way the Catholic priest was killed recently.
CAN President, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, in a statement released in Abuja by his media aide, Pastor Bayo Oladeji, appealed for an end to the crisis, saying it was important to give peace a chance for infrastructure and human capital development to take place in the state.