The traditional leader is renowned for encouraging locals to refuse paying ransom to criminals who kidnapped their loved ones
The wives and five children of Sani Muhammed, the district chief of Mutum Biu, were killed by gunmen who are believed to be bandits.
Mutum Biu is the administrative center of Taraba State’s Gasol Local Government area.
Ibrahim Ya’u, a senior Gasol Emirate official, informed reporters of the event on Saturday in Jalingo, the state’s capital.
On Saturday night, the killings were also confirmed by the state’s police
“Reliable sources have reported that seven of the Emir of M/eight biyu’s family members were murdered by their attackers. Usman Abdullahi, the state police spokesperson, stated that one individual had fled from the forest.
One of those taken hostage together with the district head’s family, according to Mr. Ya’u, was able to escape.
After the gunmen raided the homes of the monarch, a retired judge, and a second-class chief, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the district head’s family was abducted in Jalingo.
According to Mr. Ya’u, the bodies of the traditional ruler’s family members were placed in the district head’s residence in Mutumbiyu on Friday in preparation for Islamic burial on Saturday.
After the gunmen raided the homes of the monarch, a retired judge, and a second-class chief, the district head’s family was abducted in Jalingo.
According to Mr. Ya’u, the bodies of the traditional ruler’s family members were placed in the district head’s residence in Mutumbiyu on Friday in preparation for Islamic burial on Saturday.
Residents of the town had said that the attackers targeted the monarch because he had aided local security forces and the Taraba Marshall, a state-sponsored vigilante group that has been battling local criminals, in their efforts.
Suspected herdsmen attacked the Maiyanga community in the Bokkos LGA of Plateau State on Monday where three deaths were verified. It was learned that two additional people were shot during the attack that took place on Sunday night.
Bulus Sule, a resident of Maiyanga community, confirmed the incident to The PUNCH in Jos on Monday and stated that the injured were transported to the hospital to receive treatment.
Sule stated, “The assailants came and attacked the residents of the Maiyanga neighborhood last night (Sunday). Three people were killed by gunfire, while two others were wounded. Just too much shooting took place. The community is suffering right now.
Ilya, a different community member, decried the murders of the locals.
The security personnel, he claimed, were informed of the attack and arrived in the neighborhood a few hours after the shooters had left.
He urged the administration to step up security in the area to prevent further assaults on the populace.
When reached regarding the attack at the time of making up this report, Alabo Alfred, the spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, could not be reached for comments.
The governor of Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai, recently spoke with Channels TV and made a number of assertions about his state and Nigeria.
Here is what Middle Belt Times discovered after investigating some of the claims.
CLAIM 1: “The local government of Kubau is bigger than the state of Anambra.”
FALSE: Kaduna’s Kubau local government covers 2,363 km2, whilst Anambra covers 4,865 km2 according to the city population website.
CLAIM 2: “Legislative members are permitted to operate their own businesses.”
FALSE: Except for farming, which is primarily done to promote agriculture, full-time public servants are not authorized by law to own or operate private companies, trades, or professions..
CLAIM 3: “The size of Borno State is four times that of the five South-Eastern States.”
FALSE: Borno is not four times as large as the five south-eastern states combined in terms of land mass as el-Rufai claimed, but rather only 2.5 times as large.
Borno is the second-largest state in Nigeria after Niger based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), with a size of 72,609 square kilometers. While all five south eastern states have a combined surface area of 28,987sqkm
…Describes UN statement as callous, insensitive and lopsided
A group under the auspices of Middle Belt Patriots have berated the United Nations over its statement on the recent bombing of civilians in Nasarawa state. The group in a statement signed by its National Secretary Comrade Kator Aondover and made available to Middle Belt Times on Monday described the statement credited to Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide as callous, divisive, insensitive and lopsided.
The statement reads;
“On the 3rd of February 2023, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide released a UN statement on the worsening insecurity situation in Nigeria.
Alice Wairimu Nderitu
“In that statement, she expressed her strongest condemnation for an airstrike that – in her words, “killed at least 40 civilian herders from the Fulani ethnic community whilst injuring scores more”.
“She expressed concern over the security situation in the North West and North Central where “the air attacks resulted in the casualties of Fulani took place”.
“The fact that Alice Wairimu, a representative of the United Nations, did not complete sufficient research prior to making such a delicate statement that has the potential to aggravate ethnic tensions and tearing the very fabric of an already fragile nation like Nigeria has analysts perplexed”.
“The UN through Alice Wairimu, in its malicious report, painted a picture of “exclusive Fulani victimhood”, and that the Fulani communities were targeted along identity lines”.
UN office of Prevention of Genocide statement.
“Unknown to Alice Wairimu, the truth about the airstrike in Rukubi, a village on the border between Nasarawa and Benue States would be told by Hon Akyala Ishaku, a House of Representatives candidate from Nasarawa state, dispelling the myth in that statement.
“The House of Representatives candidate would disclose true events in a post where it was revealed that the victims of the airstrike included people of other ethnicities in the region, particularly the Tiv.
“He shared a photo of the living conditions in the IDP (internally displaced camp) where the displaced people of Tiv extraction were lodged.”
Recall that deposed Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido had issued a report blaming the Governor of Benue State as the orchestrator of the attack. He said “All the air strikes that took place in Nasarawa were masterminded from Makurdi – we must hold him responsible since we know his position against Fulani.”
However, the remark defies all logic as to why the governor of Benue would wish to harm his kin who were undoubtedly affected by the airstrike yet to be investigated by the authority.
But what continues to be perplexing is why the UN and Sanusi would want to portray it as an attack solely on people of Fulani extraction and the targeting of Fulani people along identity lines, when the Fulani victims of the attack only make up a portion of the victims of the bombing.
Apparently, the United Nations through its the Special Adviser, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, has taken the Sanusi narrative through its statement on the matter.
At the moment, there is little confidence that the United Nations would take a neutral stance in future deliberations around armed insurgency and insecurity in the country.
After all, numerous petitions regarding armed attacks on defenseless natives in the Middle Belt and Southern regions of the nation have been submitted to the United Nations by various organizations, but the issue has never been handled with the zeal and promptness that the Fulani false airstrike story has.
The persistent attacks by ethnic Fulani militias, which peaked in 2017 and have wrought destruction over the whole country as shown in the heat map from Genocide Watch below, has surprisingly been ignored by the UN.
Map showing violence by Fulani militias and other armed groups in Nigeria
The UN has rather opted to take the “farmer – herder conflict narrative” and even though the majority of Middle Belt intellectuals strongly disagree with this narrative, the larger international community regardless has adopted them.
Intellectuals in the Middle Belt are aware that while many towns in Nigeria are rife with violence, it is unusual when the causes involves the “invasions of neighboring villages, renaming communities inhabitants and displacing them”.
Conflicts that employ this atypical strategy show that factors other than these pedagogical ones proposed by the United Nations may also be at play.
One such illustration is the conflict between theTiv and Jukun, which is sparked by boundary demarcation and should even justify or increase pressure to settle on the land of neighboring groups. However, these features are not common, and aggrieved groups do not change community names when involved in conflicts with local communities. What makes it even more outrageous is that, in accordance with a number of Nigerian governors, the confrontations are with Fulani pastoralists emanating from nations outside of Nigeria’s boarders.
All of this suggests that the United Nations may have already taken a position on the issue.
While Alice Wairmiru was making her statement, Emir Sanusi had written a petition with 52 signatures that was sent to President Muhammadu Buhari accusing the Governor of Benue State of planning the murder of the pastoralists in Nasarawa despite the fact that the Air Force authority had admitted to the bombings and defended its action, saying that if the bombing victims were innocent herders, then justice must be served and that the perpetrators would face consequences.
Since emir Sanusi and Alice Wairmiru’s remarks, Mr. Peter Ahemba, president of the Tiv Development Association (TIDA) in Nasarawa State, has raised the alarm about armed herdsmen’s attacks and murder of innocent Tiv people in the southern part of Nasarawa state as retaliation for the recent bombing that has been mischaracterized as a Fulani targeted killing.
Doma, Keana, and Obi LGAs have witnessed armed herders kill dozens of Tiv people in recent days, the President claims, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes.
According to Peter Achemba, Chabo village was totally devastated and is now nothing but ashes. The entire Tiv population in Doma was forced to leave their homes, and countless others are being killed in isolated areas, all while a murderous onslaught was launched on Ajo village in Keana LGA.
As a result, we urge Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, to apologize to the Tiv indigenes of Nasarawa for taking part in spreading the false information that has caused a “spate” of killings in Nasarawa State, as well as to the entire Tiv nation and the people of the Middle Belt for escalating the conflict in which they have suffered the most.”
End of statement…
Recall that the Middle Belt area of Nigeria has been witnessing incessant attacks on agrarian communities largely blamed on Fulani militias.
The Benue state government in its efforts to curb the menace introduced anti open grazing law in the state. The law was widely condemned by Fulani elites in the country including the federal government.
