By Tor Vande-Acka/Lafia
No fewer than 20 persons were feared dead in the Tiv/Fulani crisis in Awe Local Government Area (LGA) of Nasarawa State, but the Tiv people are calling for justice from the state government.
Also, not less than 12 communities that cut across three LGAs of the state, Kwarra, Kuduku, Ajo and Chiata communities, have been sacked as a result of the crisis.
The Tiv people, under the aegis of Tiv Development Association (TIDA), stated this in a statement made available to Daily Independent in Lafia on Tuesday.
According to the statement, "over 20 defenceless and innocent people have been murdered in cold blood in Awe and this has continued unabated"
The statement was signed by the TIDA Secretary, Ashikaa Benard; President Tiv Youth Organisation (TYO), Joseph Indyiar; Mary Hemba, TYO Secretary; Mercy Kumbur, Women Leader and a Tiv eminent son in Nasarawa, Peter Igbacher.
According to the statement, "Today, as a result of the recurrent attacks on our people, the entire Tiv population in Ekye Development Area have been displaced from their ancestral homes.
"Consequently, our people are now totally displaced from their homes, while their farms taken over as grazing land.
"These Fulani militia and their collaborators freely move with arms brandishing them in broad day light in Awe town unchallenged", they added.
The statement recalled the incident of 2011 when the Tiv people "witnessed another systematic pogrom on the Tiv population by the Fulani and their cohorts", pointing out that as a result of the recurrent attacks on their people, the entire Tiv population in Ekye Development Area have been displaced from their ancestral homes.
They further disclosed that the Tiv community in Kwarra and Kadarko Districts of Giza Development Area in Keana LGA have also been displaced, stressing that Kuduku, Ajo and Chiata communities were also completely sacked.
The group lamented that "Presently, the ancestral homes and farms of the Tiv people of Ekye in Doma Local Government Area of the state have been occupied by the Fulani herdsmen with little or no effort being made (by the relevant authority) to ensure our people return to their ancestral homes".
It also called on the state government to consider its citizens displaced in the perennial communal crisis, even as it urged Governor Umaru Al-Makura to consider all affected communities in the on-going palliatives programme embarked by government, including the Tiv people.
"As a matter of urgency, government should ensure the vacation of the Fulani herdsmen and their militia presently occupying our homes and farms in the interest of peace", the group stressed
TIDA also appealed to government to provide adequate security to protect their lives and property and ensure the immediate return of it's people to their ancestral homes, so that they can participate in the forth-coming voter revalidation and electoral process.
