The Fulani community in Taraba state has cried out to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo about their community being targeted in an ongoing ethnic cleansing.
In reaction to the recent killings in the Sardauna Local Government Area of the state, the Fulani community has accused the Mambilla tribe of trying to wipe their tribe out over a land dispute.
In a press release signed by elders of the community, Alhaji Ahmadu Adamu, Malam Suleiman Musa, Alhaji Hassan Ardo and Alhaji Dauda Jae, the community complained about continuous attacks on their settlements across the local government area.
They accused the Mambilla tribe of attacking over 300 Fulani communities, killing hundreds within just one week.
They also alleged that the targeted killings are being carried out on the orders of the chairman of the local government, John Yep.
The statement said, “On the 16th of June, 2017 security personnel moved in the early hours and effected some arrests in Nguroje during which some suspected ring leaders of a group that has been fomenting trouble in the area got into the net of the security.
“On getting information about the development, the chairman of the local government, Mr John Yep immediately led some Mambillia youths to storm Nguroje alleging that the arrest was instigated by the Fulani. This led to a total siege on Nguroje and its environs.
“He ran across some villages mobilising his kinsmen under their militia group called ‘Mun Nor Ambassadors of Peace’ being the political attack dogs of a prominent politician from the area.
“Through this process, the council chairman was able to sell a dummy to his tribesmen across the entire local government painting a wrong and malicious picture that his kinsmen, the Mambilla ethnic group, was being attacked by the Fulanis.
“In fact he made a personal radio message through the Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) Gembu Booster Station calling on his kinsmen to execute the genocide on the station’s transmissions of Saturday evening and Sunday morning respectively.
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