Efforts by the Taraba State government to end the protracted killings between the Tiv and Jukun people in the southern part of the state suffered a recent set-back, with the killing of a cleric and his wife in their farm.
The couple – Emmanuel Saba Bileya and his wife, Juliana – who lived in Mararaba, Donga local government and served with the Christian Reformed Church-Nigeria (CRC-N), was matcheted to death.
The violence between both ethnic groups has not only resulted to the wanton destruction of property, but also, loss of innumerable lives and a resultant exodus of scared natives from both sides of the divide. This has laid waste to the region, as it has become a shadow of its self, its commerce and what it made of its local economy suffering as a result.
Saddened by the development, the state governor, Arc. Darius Ishaku Dickson, who said he received the deaths of the couple “with shock”, urged security operatives to go the extra mile to fish out the perpetrators of the gruesome crime.
Ishaku described the killings as “wicked and inhuman”.
He said: “killings of this nature have happened too often recently in southern Taraba communities. This situation is unhelpful to the on-going efforts of government to achieve lasting peace among communities in the area.”
While he assured that his administration would not be discouraged in forging ahead to unearth the killer and end the killings which have made that region of the state an eye-sore, he wondered why the militia went as far as killing the cleric and his wife.
A clearly disturbed chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Isiah M. Jerapyi, described the gruesome killings as “barbaric and an act of terrorism”.
Jerapyi, who spoke with QuickNewsAfrica, urged the state government and the security agents to put together their security apparatus to track down the killers.
This killing, as observed by this reporter, has not only frustrated the governor’s efforts at ensuring the return of peace via dialogue with the ethnic groups but has further heightened tensions in the area, as hostilities may certainly resume following the recent killing.
So far, both ethnic groups have shunned a compromise and other overtures made by the state government.
Though security operatives claimed to be on top of the situation , stating that plans to bring to book perpetrators of the killings have been mapped out, some key persons from both ethnic groups claimed to have lost faith in security agencies in the state, as they have “failed to resist the temptation to take sides” and, thus, not done enough to douse the tension.
