Tension in Taraba communities over alleged ceding of district

While security operatives are still working round the clock to contain the ongoing killings among the Kuteb and Fulani ethnic groups in Southern part of Taraba state, another crisis is again brewing in the Mambilla Plateau of Sardauna council.

The tension, as noticed by The Trumpet, is no doubt necessitated by the ceding of Maisamari district in Kamkam chiefdom to Nguroje chiefdom in the Mambilla Plateau of the council.

The aggrieved communities who came under the umbrella of the Mambilla Progressive Cultural Association (MAPCA) on Tuesday expressed their dismay over government decisions to “take away Maisamari district from Kamkam chiefdom” by giving it to Nguroje chiefdom” without following due process.

Stating their positions via a press statement which was made available to media practitioners in Jalingo, the state capital, the action, according to them has been unanimously “rejected” by the affected communities.

The communities who claimed that the suit is before the High Court sitting in Jalingo wondered why the government has gone ahead to ” take away the district” without waiting for the court judgment.

Signed by the President of Mambilla Communities, Sufa Moses, the group expressed sadness that the governor “has taken another step to abuse due process and approved Maisamari as district of an uncreated Nguroje and to appoint a district head chosen by Nguroje.”

He Stressed that the governor ” had plotted in connivance with his cronies to slice off a part of Kamkam chiefdom on the Mambilla Plateau to ‘dash out’ away free gift to the Fulani controlled Nguroje area, which is itself a Kamkam territory” beckoned at the governor to go ahead and jettison such move.

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Wondering why the governor has decided to “secretly and surreptitiously move to effective a strange appointment of a traditional ruler inside Benena (Maisamari town) of Kamkam district without recourse to due process, justice, history and legality” dropping such plans, they believed would go a long way to halt the escalation of upheavals in the council.

Part of the statement reads “we, on behalf of the Mambilla communities worldwide, once again call on the governor to end his ‘Mambilla War’ and bring to an end the endless tension he and his cronies have created in Mambilla.”

The group who our correspondent noticed could not fathom why the governor has decided to make a caricature of the Justice Joel Agya Commission said that ” they felt that the leadership of the state had already connived to destroy a particular group and lands for selfish and political purposes.”

Some persons in the council who spoke with our correspondent via telephone, also expressed sadness, at the way and manner, the historical backgrounds of the communities are on the verge of being distorted by the state government whom they believed ought to have jealously protect the history.