Taraba State
Governor, Darius Ishaku, on Saturday, condemned the ongoing fracas between
Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Mambilla Plateau, Sardauna Local
Government of
the state.
While
describing as untrue, claims that he gave an order for the extermination of the
Fulani ethnic group, he said bloodshed must be condemned wherever it happened,
and not only when one group decided that they had been affected.
Ishaku who
demanded that critics accusing him of instigating genocide, should produce a
memo, tape or video recording of how the directive was issued, described his
accusers as people displaying their inability to properly use the term.
The outbreak
of communal unrest between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nguroje Village had
spread to other parts of the Mambilla Plateau resulting in the loss of lives
and properties.
Ishaku in a
statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Emmanuel Bello,
obtained by journalists in Jos, said the governor’s traducers were out for a
mischief.
He said,
“The accusers of Governor Ishaku are saying that he, at some point, actually
gave orders by way of a broadcast or in some secret location that a certain
ethnic group should be wiped out of Taraba.
“They must
have a tape recording of such instructions or directives. They probably have a
memo by the governor where he clearly gave the plans for elimination, stating
timelines.
“They also
probably know the armed militia he had planned with to carry out the dastardly
act. Now, if they don’t have all of these, as I’m sure there is nothing like
that, then, it is amazing how they could sit before journalists and tell a
civilised world that a genocide has been planned against them.
“If they
want to see genocide, ample examples are there but certainly not in our dear
Taraba state. We don’t profile people in this very lovely state or plan the
elimination of same. Life is sacrosanct here.”
The governor
wondered why the term genocide had not been used in other places where the
country witnessed horrendous cases of crimes against humanity.
“In Taraba
state, all human lives are precious to us. That is why Governor Ishaku keeps
pushing for peace. That’s even his mantra: he says, ‘give me peace and I would
give you development’; he is too refined, too peace loving to engage in any
kind of blood letting or encourage such. The governor is a very civilised man
of the world who has interacted with various segments,” Bello said.
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