Tabital Pulaaku International (TPI), Nigeria, an NGO, has appealed to the international community and media to prevail on relevant authorities at federal and state levels to take appropriate actions in halting ongoing killings of pastoralists in Taraba.
The organisation also called on governments to halt cattle rustling and unlawful, forceful eviction and burning of pastoralists settlements in parts of the state.
Dr Mohammed Sale, the Secretary General of the group, who made the call in a statement on Friday in Abuja, listed the affected pastoralists communities as Gashaka, Gassol, and Bali local government areas of the state.
According to him, this action has wider implication to the peace and stability of the entire country, if allowed to continue unchecked.
“Hundreds of innocent pastoralists who have lived in these areas for decades, including women, children, elderly and young adults, have been murdered in mass and their properties burnt down on daily basis for the past few weeks in a manner that can best be described as a genocide.
“We condemn in strong terms, the ongoing mass killings of pastoralists Fulɓe in Taraba state at the recently affected areas, and indeed the state as a whole.
“Our association therefore strongly believes that at this material time, it owes the government a responsibility to remind it of its basic responsibility, which is protecting lives and properties of the citizens.
“We draw the attention of the entire nation’s security agencies (the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, Chief of Defence Military Intelligence, Inspector General of Police, D-G of DSSS and the NSCDC boss to these ongoing genocidal actions,” he stated.
Sale alleged that a verbal vacation notice was earlier issued to eight Fulbe communities in Gashaka (Garbabi and Barmani) and Bali (Kungana, Jatau, Gazabu, Maihujja Karekare and Kosa) LGAs of the state, through their traditional rulers.
According to him, the notice is ordering them to quit their original/ancestral settlements without providing any alternative place for them.
He described such as violation of their fundamental human rights as stipulated under chapter four of the 1999 constitution.
“As a direct consequence of this vacation notice, militia groups in connivance with locals of the affected communities supported by state government vigilantes have taken the frontline in forcefully evicting the pastoralists in these communities.
“The eviction is in a manner that appears as a direct or clear intention of exterminating these law abiding Nigerians from the surface of the earth,” he said.
TPI is a volunteer non-governmental association that is desirous of promoting peace, understanding, and unity among Fulbe and other ethnic communities/cultures within Nigeria, Africa and the diaspora, among others.
