The Wase Crisis And Taroh People

Human tragedy of holocaust proportions is unfolding in Wase LGA Plateau State and most incredibly, it is at the instance of those with moral, political and legal obligation to prevent it. Equally traumatic is the attempt to falsify history, distort facts, inflame passions and generally create conditions that make it virtually impossible for troubles-shooters to intervene or for peace to be given a chance. In spite of all this we are determined that the people of Plateau State and the generality of Nigerians shall know the whole truth, all the facts and factors as they relate to this contrived and tragic crisis. First and foremost is the fact that since July 3rd, 2002 and up till this moment, 88 (eighty eight) villages/settlements ,populated by the Taroh people in Langtang-North, Langtang-South Wase and Kanam LGAs have been attacked and totally destroyed resulting in more than 100,000 (one hundred thousand) displaced persons rendered homeless in their fatherland.

The casualty figures are steadily rising and at this moment, more than 5000 deaths have been established. These were Taroh people taken unawares and brutally murdered in these attacks. Women and children were not spared. In almost every case, the women were raped first and then slaughtered. This tragedy is graphically illustrated by the harrowing experience of a weary and tired mother of five. She had fled the killings and together with her five young children trekked a distance of over 70km from Safio in Wase to Langtang. Lo and behold, she arrived Langtang with only one of the five children as the other four had died as a result of hunger, starvation and sheer fatigue. Men, especially the young, were made to do forced labour and later killed. The attackers also looted all belongings including livestock, foodstuff, and whatever else, that struck their fancy.

Also worthy of special note is that every Church in Wase Town was destroyed and the foundations dug up; all houses belonging to Christians in the town were forced opened or otherwise vandalized. Even a Primary School in Zango was not spared. We also take this opportunity to condole our brothers and sisters of Ngas, Mwagavul and Sayawa extractions who also suffered many casualties in this Madness. Secondly, on 4th July, 2002, the Emir of Wase, Alhaji Haruna Abdullahi sent for the various Taroh Community Leaders/Elders all over Wase LGA to come and see him in his palace at Wase, for a meeting to discuss the rising crisis. They dutifully arrived the palace for the meeting but unknown to them it was an ambush. Just before the meeting was concluded some Hausa/ Fulani Muslim settlers had surrounded the palace asking for their heads. Thus, on leaving the palace, these leaders were brutally attacked and killed. Only four escaped with their lives. Among those who lost their lives were:

(1) Hon. Gabriel G. Zhimwang - one time member. Plateau State House of Assembly.

(2) Hon. Ishaya Kumfa - one time councillor Wase LGA.

(3) Police Inspector Danjuma Laven (rtd).

(4) Binven Lar - one time leader of Tarok leader in Damna.

(5) Mamjing Gwaram - Tarok leader in Gwaram.

Thirdly, the Taroh people of Wase LGA are actually the single largest ethnic group, making up 66% of the total population of the LGA. When the government of Chief Dariye set up a committee to look into requests for creation of new Local Governments, the Tarok community, along with nine other ethnic groups indigenous to Plateau State including Ngas, Jukun, Bogghom, Kwalla and Sayawa forwarded a memorandum seeking Wase South Local Government to be created out of the present Wase LGA.

This greatly angered the Hausa/Fulani political adventurers who believed that their stranglehold on the enclave of Wase Town must be extended to include every part of the LGA. They expressed this anger in intimidatory tones noted in their letter to the committee on 14/06/02, labelling the Taroh a visitor-tribe to Wase LGA and that any contemplation of creating Wase South will be stiffly resisted. They conveniently overlooked the fact that all Hausa-Fulanis known to Plateau State are settlers and that until the heavens fall, Plateau State will never be part of Hausa land. It is beyond dispute that Tarok and Jukun had long settled in the area before Madaki Hassan arrived from Bauchi to settle in the small spot now known as Wase in AD 1820. History cannot be twisted by wishful thinking. In any case, since several other ethnic groups signed the memo demanding for Wase South Local Government, why was Tarok singled out for attack? It must be clear by now to any critical observer that the present campaign to dislocate, dispossess and even exterminate the Taroh people is a pre-planned and well-crafted script being played out to maximum advantage. At a given signal or opportunity, the perpetrators of this heinous crime against humanity must accept full responsibility for their dastardly and cowardly act.

First, we are aware that the Sardauna Wase and the Executive Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency, Chief Joshua Chibi Dariye paid a secret/private visit to Wase and held a closed door meeting with the Emir of Wase for about 2 hours on July 3rd, 2002. It was the next day after this auspicious meeting that the Emir invited the hapless Taroh Community Leaders for the meeting at his palace from which nearly all of them met their untimely deaths. It is ceaselessly amazing that Joshua Dariye, who is overwhelmed by his office and is still unable to learn how to come to grips with it, blames it all on the Taroh people.

His shameful and embarrassing non-performance has guaranteed that he shall not come back to Government House after his remaining 9 months in office, but he still clings to the insane hope that it may yet be possible. Trying to exterminate the Taroh, Angas and Berom people before dispossessing and dislocating them around the period of voters' registration, molesting them, in this season of rain when they should be in their farms, will not change your fate which, God willing, is already sealed.

Secondly we are not so naive as to think that the efficiently diabolic demolition of every Church in Wase, and the grizzly murder of 3 of the Reverends in the course, is the usual destruction of Churches Nigerians have been treated to in many parts of the country. The average Wase Mani's (Hausa-Fulani Muslim) abiding grudge against the Taroh is that they enabled Christianity to become firmly established in this part of the country. We recognize the violence unleashed against church buildings, the holy men and the Taroh people generally in this light. Not one mosque is affected throughout. Thirdly we are all too aware that the excuse/occasion for this terrible onslaught against the Taroh people took place outside Taroh Land; to be precise, in Yelwa, another settler enclave in Shendam Local Government. Here too, Tarok and many other indigenous tribes of Plateau state namely: Goemai, Ngas, Berom, Sayawa, Montol, Yom, Mwagavul, and Kwalla were ruthlessly brutalized and massacred and their properties completely destroyed or looted. We feel for them because we know how it hurts.

Displaced persons fleeing the fighting reached as far as Shendam, Langtang, Mabudi, Dengi, Wase, Pankshin, Mangu, Jos etc. Only a little child will be confused by the inordinate response in Wase directed at Taroh people immediately following Joshua Dariye's secret mission to his beloved Emir. It has also become very clear that for this cause also, the Hausa-Fulani Muslims imported non-Nigerians, especially Chadians and Nigeriens who take no prisoners. It is curiously interesting that the Emir of Wase is belatedly (3rd week of July,) admitting that he had earlier come across about 2000 heavily armed bandits of Fulani stock in Wadata, Kadarko District of Wase LGA and he had pleaded with them to stop the killing of Taroh people: The question is, did he report this to the authorities? When it is considered that Plateau State is in the middle of Nigeria and does not have a single international boundary with any country, the magnitude of this sinister plot and its overall security implication for the whole nation is better imagined.

Fourthly, when the Sardauna Wase, as Executive Governor of the State then decided to become aware of the crisis and the social problems consequent upon it, he was able to arrange security to guard the Mosque in Wase, the Emir's palace and the Local Government secretariat, but none was provided in the rest of the surrounding areas in the LGA where this systematic slaughter was going on unabated. In terms of relief materials, his government whimsically and callously sent to Langtang North, 10 (fifty - kg) bags of rice, 10 bags of some rotten maize, 30 mats, and 28 towels for these displaced persons who were in more than 10 camps, apart from those sheltered by relations and other volunteers.

As if all these were not bad enough already, the Taroh people were not spared the senile meddlesomeness of Alhaji Yahaya Kwande, Governor Dariye's all-time, ever-ready hatchet man. He brayed loudly as usual that Joshua Dariye remains blameless; that the Taroh were to blame even for the crisis in Yelwan Shendam when a stranger decided to participate, uninvited, in a purely family quarrel. Ever since Yahaya Kwande and Joshua Dariye established an intriguing alliance at the crashed Benue Cement Company, he has always been available for Dariye's use. A more stable and serious character would have at least, taken the time to know what was going on at all before jumping to conclusions or offering to justify anyone but not Yahaya Kwande. His pitiable antecedents reveal a dishonourable, consistently destablizing, self-centered, time-sever permanently wedded to the angle of personal-gain-only. It is not surprising therefore, that at a very advanced age - in his seventies and without a meaningful achievement in life - he is the pathetic picture of a drowning man for whom everything in life keeps going progressly from bad to worse by the day. Nevertheless, if he insists on using Taroh people in his schemes with Chief Joshua Dariye, he is better advised to be immediately on his marks.

CONCLUSION: With these happenings, we have no option than to appeal to the might of the Federal Government to come to the aid of Taroh people.

1. Already there are 10 camps for internally displaced persons in Gazum Bwarat, Pil-Gani, Langtang, Mabudi, Talgwang, Jidadi. For these thousands and thousands of displaced persons, there are thousands more being sheltered by relations and volunteers. Schools, churches, town halls etc, that have proved insufficient for their accommodation. There is no food. Health and hygiene facilities are nil and there is a very grave risk of the outbreak of epidemics. Already, some are dying in these unhygienic conditions, having arrived the camps in a state of exhaustion, hunger, and in some cases, even snakebite. There is the immediate need for massive aid.

2. Apart from this, there is equally the need for rehabilitation of the displaced persons so that they can return to, and work on their farms in this rainy season.

3. We also plead with the Federal Government for more overt and/or covert security surveillance in Wase LGA. The Taroh people need steady assurance that there will be no further attacks and destructions unleashed on them by the forces procured by Governor, Joshua Dariye and the Emir of Wase.

In conclusion, we wish to tell the diabolically minded Nigerians in Wase LGA, and elsewhere that what happened to Tarok community in Wase and Yelwan Shendam will not happen again.

God bless Nigeria and all who wish her well.

Rev. Canon S Miner.

Chairman, Tarok Elders' Forum

Barrister Danjuma D. Rimdan, Secretary, Tarok Elders' Forum.

Sept 2002