Tiv youth accuse Ishaku of fueling Tiv/Jukun crisis

By Chiangi Avese, Makurdi

The Tiv Youth Organization has accused Governor Dairus Ishaku of Taraba state of sponsoring attacks on Tiv people in Taraba state.

The TYO equally flayed elder statesman, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma for maintaining a coordinated silence over the attacks on indigenous Tiv people of Taraba state.

President General of TYO, Comrade Timothy Hembaor in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Makurdi, urged Gen. Danjuma and Gov. Ishaku to halt the sponsored attacks because the Tivs in Taraba state were bonafide citizens and should be accorded the rights they deserve.

Hembaor noted with grave concern that Gen. Danjuma, who protested the killings that took place in the state and actually urged his people to rise up and defend themselves has now lost his voice as his Jukun tribe unleash mayhem on the Tivs in Taraba state.

“Ishaku should rise up to the challenge of ensuring the security of all Tarabans, their tribe notwithstanding,” the statement said.

The statement noted that Gov. Ishaku’s stand on the killing of Tivs in Taraba is fast portraying him as a sectional leader out to annihilate those he perceives as not been indigenes of the state.

“You will recall that in the past few months there have been grave security breaches along the Benue/Taraba borders which have led to loss of lives with property valued at millions of naira destroyed.

“The crises which started like a mere disagreement between a Tiv young man and his Jukun friend snowballed into a major crisis that has now taken a very worrisome dimension.

“Today, the Tivs in Taraba are been hunted and killed like wild animals by a well coordinated Jukun militia. The recent killing of two students and a lecturer both of the Federal University, Wukari of Tiv extraction by Jukun militia in Wukari town readily comes to mind.

“While this mayhem is been visited on the Tiv people in Taraba, we are very saddened that the governor from information available to us has rather taken sides with the Jukun who are his kinsmen against the Tivs who are his subjects,” the youth groud added.