The president of the Jukun Apex Socio- Cultural and Political Organisation of the Jukun people , the Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN) Chief Benjamin Bako has warned the suspected Tiv Militia group who were alleged to have killed three ( 3) people and many others injured to take advantage of the generosity and the inclusiveness of the present administration of Dr agbu kafas to live in peace with their host Community or the Jukun people will be prepared to defend their land.
Chief Bako stated this in an exclusive interview with Taraba News while reacting to the news of the killings of 3 people, including a woman along Wukari Tsokudi Road in Wukari Local Government of Taraba State. He expressed surprise that a Tiv group will audaciously step forward to claim responsibility for slaughtering Jukun people on their own land .
Chief Bako said Gov Agbu Kefas’ efforts to operate an all-inclusive government of State unity by taking the political risk to ignore many interest groups and brought on board even the opposition is being viewed by some Tiv renegades as a sign of weakness. Can you imagine that for the first time after a long time a Tiv man is appointed into the state executive council with hope for more opportunities, then the Tiv people stroke with the intention of blackmailing the government.
The magnanimity of the current government needs to be commended, to say the least. Tiv people in Taraba dividend their votes between Professor Yahaya of the NNPP and Senator Emmanuel Bwacha of the APC, yet Dr Agbu Kefas rewarded them and many others for opposing him.
Chief Bako Condemns in strong terms the attack against the Jukun people and warn that Jukun will no longer tolerate, he said this attack has been going on for some time now, he said this attack is not only happening on Wukari- Tsokundi but also on, Chanchanji-Takum road where Tiv criminality has been elevated to a community enterprise.
“As I speak to you many have died, Yoruba people, Igbo Business people by the same Tiv people along Chanchanji, robbery and kidnapping taking place on this road on a daily basis, some of this incident are even under reported”
According to Chief Bako, the Jukun people in Benue state are being ridiculed and maltreated daily but yet they follow a civic approach by seeking redress in court, he condemned the recent attack on Jukun people in North Bank Makurdi Benue state.
” Our people in Benue are suffering under a terrible inhuman condition witness only in appartite SouthAfrica, they don’t even have a government primary school, clinics, not even get a councilor in over 100 years of existence. Yet our people obediently wrote to complain about their plight, and even went to court, without taking law Into their hands”
According to him ,Tiv criminality in Southern Taraba has destroyed the economy of the entire region is becoming very worrisome and the Jukun people will defend themselves and defend their land, he warned that the continuous killing of the Jukun people will no longer be tolerated.
“We own land from Kente to Makurdi in Benue state but has been subjugated completely and yet the Jukun people did not take laws into their hands in Benue State, rather went to court, we need to go back to drawing board with this open declaration of war by the Tiv people, it is going to be fire for fire, enough is enough, we will defend ourself and our land no body has monopoly for violence” He called on security agencies to identify the Tiv Taraba group officials and arrest them promptly before they kill more people as they openly promised.
He condemned the declaration by the TIV Taraba group online, where the group claimed responsibility for the attack and also threatened further attack on the Jukun people.
“The acceptance by the TIV Taraba that they kill the Jukun people is the high of it, this can only happen in Afghanistan, we need to go back to the drawing board and defend ourselves because they have told us what to expect ”
He disagreed with the claim that some land in Jukun land belonged to the Tiv people.
“The problem has been there for years, those places they are claiming that they are their grand fathers’ land now, these where farm labourers that were brought into Jukunland, to come and farm, you know the culture of farm labourers in Jukun land is not new, our people go and hire people surplus supply of farm labourers across Benue to come and farm for them, when you farm for them they will say, let me compensate you with a small piece of the land to farm your choice of crop for the season, ; these Jukun people with time now died and their children not interested in farming left for the city, this community Tivs stay their and continued to multiple and stay in the farm and now they are claiming it is their land” They should produce the receipt of payment where the land was sold to them by Jukun people. Is Tsukundi a Jukun name or Tiv language? Answer me!