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The Tiv Youth Organisation (TYO) has said Tiv people of Taraba State are bona fide indigenes who deserve protection, rights and privileges accorded other indigenes of the state.
President General of TYO worldwide, Comrade Timothy Hembaor, who stated this yesterday in Makurdi, Benue State while briefing newsmen, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct security forces to end the killings of Tiv people in Taraba.
Hembaor also stressed that those arrested and found culpable should be prosecuted, adding: “The recent killing of two students of the Federal University Wukari and a lecturer of Tiv extraction by Jukun militia readily comes to mind.
“These unprovoked attacks on Tiv in Taraba have continued unabated and have assumed a dimension confirming that the attacks are well coordinated and aimed at wiping out the Tiv race in Taraba.
“We vehemently condemn these attacks and seek an end to the killings. The Tiv youths worldwide are not satisfied with the manner in which the crisis was handled.”
He stressed that the Tiv in Taraba are bona fide indigenes, who have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the state.
Hemboar charged illustrious sons of Jukun to prevail on their kinsmen to stop killing Tiv people, noting that General T.Y. Danjuma had earlier accused the Nigerian military of colluding with herdsmen to kill farmers and take over their lands.
“The Jukun should speak out against the ongoing pogrom of the Tiv in Taraba. Now is the time the elder statesmen should demonstrate the true spirit of nationalism.
“We wonder how different the ongoing massacre of Tiv in Taraba is from herdsmen attacks that the elites have not found it big enough an issue to talk about,” he said.
“Our findings show that the allegation that Tiv militia in Benue were responsible for the attacks on Wukari and other settlements in Taraba, which gave rise to the reprisals, was false and unfounded.
“We call on Governor Dairus Ishaku to see himself as governor of the entire state and not of the Jukun. He should, therefore, be seen to be concerned about the security of every Taraba person.
“We equally ask the Jukun to, as matter of necessity, change their negative perception of Tiv people, embrace peace and see the Tiv as their brothers,” he stated.
