Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State, the home town of the Executive Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas, have decided to resette themselves in some of their displaced homes after five years of neglect and are calling on the State Government and Security Agencies to come to their aid to enable them go about their normal businesses
The IDPs in their numbers, including pregnant women and children settled at Tor-Iorshagher, along Wukari-Rafinkada Road and Wukari-Tsukundi Road with virtually no food items and mattresses for healthy shelter
It was gathered that they decided to return to their places because, local authorities in the area have already started distributing their lands as they kept waiting for the State Government to resettle them but to no avail after three years of cease fire in the fight between Jukun and Tiv communities which lasted for about five years now
Mr Aondonengen Torkuma, one of the IDPs, a father of six children who look almost hopeless, told our reporter that thousands of their brothers were wondering in pains since the crisis began in 2019.
He stated that thousands of their villages located between Wukari to Jootar, Wukari to Rafinkada, Wukari to Ibi and Wukari to Tsukundi are gradually becoming deserts as herdsmen grace freely on the graves of their ancestors which they abandoned as a result of the crisis that lasted for five years now
“We waited patiently for the fomer governor of the state Arc Darius Dickson Ishaku, to resettle the IDPs when he called for cease fire, but later on, we discovered that there was no honesty in his call for peace. His kinsmen were rather sharing the lands and graves of our ancestral fathers and some were Selling them out. We learnt that he allegedly claimed to have bought some of the homes using his power as the Governor of the State.
“But we are hopeful that, the present Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas, been a pastor and a dedicated Christian, who has the peace and development of the state at heart, will never tour the same path with Darius Ishaku
“We want to appeal to the Governor to give us security cover to enable us continue with our normal activities since there is no more fight between we and our Jukun brothers, his kinsmen”. He added
Also, Mr Swase Ternenge, who said his wife was pregnant and life had become difficult for him in a strange land, told our reporters that he decided to go back to his ancestral home to continue with his farming activities because he is tired of staying in IDP camp without anybody attending to him.
“If the Government of Taraba State decides to kill all of us then, let it be recorded that we, the IDPs, in his Local Government are helplessly killed as a result of trying to resettle ourselves after cease fire.
“It’s over five years now that we left our homes to take refuge in strange lands. We have explore all the necessary peace moves and now we have cease fire for over two years now. So we see no reason while we will keep waiting for the Government to resettle us. Though the Local Authorities here keep referring us from one person to another for over two years, we feel the governor has it all.
“They told us that the governor had asked them not to allow us come back to our places but we know these are fabricated lies. We want to call on the governor to stand up to prove them wrong by defending us to sleep with two eyes close in our ancestral homes”. He lamented
Recall that since 1st April, 2019 till date, the Tiv people who fled most part of Southern Taraba, especially Wukari Local Government Area following the communal clash between the Jukun and the Tiv, have not been resettled and any attempt to return back to their ancestral homes is either resisted by security agencies or local authorities in the area.
With the present move for peaceful co-existence in the state, Championed by the Executive Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas, the people are hopeful that there would be no more trouble, especially that the hotspot of the issues, centers in the governor’s home town
