Not Yet At Peace

Plateau, the Peace State is yet to find peace as Muslims, Christians square off once again

The people of Wase local government area in Plateau State and its environs have not known peace since July 4, 2002. The people are engulfed in sectarian crisis which has resulted in the destruction of hundreds of lives and property. The crisis is between the Hausa-Fulani, regarded as visitors to the area and the indigenous Tarok ethnic group.

This is a spill over of the June 27 communal crisis between the two ethnic groups in Yelwa town of Shendam local government also in the south senatorial district of the state, during which more than 20 people were killed while property worth thousands of naira were destroyed. It led to reprisal and counter-reprisal attack across other local councils in the southern area of Plateau. These are: Langtang North, Langtang South, Mikang, and Kanam.

There are different versions as to the cause of the recent crisis in Wase. Solomon Lar, elder statesman, former governor of Plateau State and a Tarok man told Newswatch in Jos that the crisis in the area has to do with the recent agitation by the Tarok people in Wase local government council for a separate local government area of their own. The local government, if created, would be known as Kadarko local government, with headquarters in Kadarko. Kadarko is a district in Wase local government council. It was recently split into several districts by the state government.

Infuriated by the agitation for the creation of the local government, Lar said the Hausa-Fulani organised and attacked the Tarok people, resulting in the fight which spread to other Tarok villages and towns. The affected villages include, Gwiwan-Kogi, Ungwan Gare, Takalafiya, Jigwawan-Audu Mer, Salwe, Tenam, Runji, Ungwan-Sayawa, and Ungwan Bala.

The other version of the cause of the crisis is the one being touted by the Plateau State government. Patrick Dakum, the state commissioner for information told Newswatch that the crisis was sparked off by directives given by leaders of the Christians and Muslims leaders to their adherents. According to him, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, had earlier given an order prohibiting Christian young females from having anything to do with their Muslim male counterparts. Irked by this directive, the Muslims also retaliated by prohibiting their adherents from buying food sold by Christians. "It is this type of directives that precipitated tension that resulted in the crisis we are witnessing today," Dakum said.

But Alexander Mamdip Lar, president, Church of Christ in Nigeria , COCIN, and president of CAN in the area denied that there were such directives from CAN.

Telzing Miri, national president, Tarok Progressive Youth Association, TAPYA, thinks differently. He told Newswatch that the Plateau State government has a hand in this crisis. According to him, the crisis is aimed at distracting the major ethnic groups in the state. He said that it is for this that the government has remained adamant to what is going on in the area. He said the governor was precipitating these crises by encouraging the Hausa-Fulani in the state. "Or else, how do you explain a situation where a Hausa man was appointed chairman of the Poverty Alleviation Scheme in the state over and above indigenes of the state," he asked. "The governor is trying to curry support from these other groups now that he knows he is out of favour with the indigenes," he said.

Narrating the ordeal of the Tarok people in the hands of the Hausa-Fulani in Wase, Miri told Newswatch that all the Tarok people in Wase have had their property destroyed and hundreds of them killed, while the few who have managed to escape have come to take refuge in Langtang town, where they have been kept in camps at various centres in Langtang and its environs.

"Everybody that is of Tarok extraction that was not killed in Wase has run to Langtang for safety. The killing that took place was massive. Women and young girls were raped by the Hausa-Fulani. Cattle belonging to the Tarok people were seized from them, and the owners wantonly killed. No house belonging to any Tarok man in Wase is standing. All our property have been destroyed. They were using sophisticated weapons." He said.

An eyewitness told Newswatch in Langtang that several women of the Tarok extraction are still being held at Gimbi and Navo villages by the Hausa-Fulani and that they are being raped by their captors. An elderly woman who merely identified herself as Mama told Newswatch that three of her grand children have been held captive by the Hausa-Fulani. She said they were held hostage in one of the villages as they were trying to flee from Wase, only to be caught by the enemies.

She said her pleadings for the release of her grand children fell on deaf ears. Instead, she said, the captors asked her to go. She said, the parents of the children had been killed a day earlier, hence their decision to flee to safety.

Another victim of the crisis, Joseph Davou, who had one of his hands cut off, told Newswatch that he was yet to know the whereabout of his wife and two children. He said he was returning from farm when he came under attack, and that he has not been able to reach his home since then. He said he has sent people to all the camps in search of his family, but without success. He said his wife was nursing a three months old baby girl.

When Newswatch visited Wase on Sunday, July 14, 2002 , the town was in ruins and desolate. The few houses that were untouched, Newswatch learnt were those belonging to the Jukun, Birom and the Hausa-Fulani. Armed soldiers and police men kept vigil over the town and would not speak to reporters, neither would they allow photographs of the wanton destruction of the town to be taken. All the churches in the town were burnt.

In Langtang, displaced persons fleeing the crisis had taken refuge in schools and in every available public place. Nanzing Luka, in charge of statistics of the displaced persons put the number of refugees as at July 16, 2002 at 300,827 persons. He told Newswatch that the displaced persons were settled in 30 emergency camps scattered around Langtang town.

He said each of the camps has not less than 10,000 people. As at the time of this report, Luka said government was yet to send in any form of relief material to the refugees, neither has any government functionary visited the refugees. He said the refugees were depending on the goodwill of well-to-do sons and daughters of Tarok and charity organisations for survival.

"For how long will the well-to-do sons and daughters of Tarok, philanthropists and charity organisations continue to provide food for these people? Already, the people are under-fed. They eat just once in a day. There are no drugs, neither do we have good sanitary condition here. And we have women who are nursing very tender babies in almost all the camps. It is horrible," he said.

Emma Adam, Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, to the Plateau State Police command told Newswatch in Jos that 74 people have been arrested in connection with the case. Seventy-two of them, he said, have been charged to court. The two other persons, he said are minors.

Worried by the escalating crisis, the Plateau State government on July 5, 2002 imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the entire southern senatorial district including Kanama to check further spread of the crisis. Similarly, the conduct of the People's Democratic Party, PDP, local government primaries in six out of the 17 local government councils was put on hold.

The six councils are crisis-prone areas. They are: Jos North and South, Mikang, Langtang North and South, Yelwa and Wase. The government on Wednesday, July 10, 2002 set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the civil disturbances in the southern district of the state.

The commission is headed by Justice Felicia Kaneng Dusu. Other members are J.A. Akson, Tommy Yale, Augustine Jang and I.D. Mohammed, while Joseph Magaji Azi is to serve as the secretary.

Dakum told Newswatch that the state's emergency management agency has also been mobilised to provide relief materials and food stuff to all the affected communities.