Nasarawa Indigenous Concerned Group has faulted Senator Aliyu Wadada for derogatory statements about indigenes’ status in Nasarawa State.
In a statement signed by Yakubu Iyima, the group lamented that the statement could heat the polity in a heterogeneous state like Nasarawa State.
Senator Wadada, representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), made some statements on Saturday during an empowerment programme organised by his friend and state Chairman of the APC in Nasarawa State, Dr Aliyu Bello.
He said, “The issue of indigeneship is long gone. The focus now is who will bring progress, nothing else. Aliyu Bello is from Kano; who will bring progress to the people is the issue”.
“No more visitors in the world; today, it is a global village. How dare someone in his right senses look at me and tell me that I’m not an indigene of Nasarawa State?”
“My great-grandfather settled here 250 years ago, my grandfather was born here, and my father was born here. My father’s ways of life impacted me; today, I’m impacted. Don’t dare try that,” he said.
But in a swift reaction, in a statement titled, “Wadada: The masquerade has shown its whip in the market square,” the group blamed Senator Wadada for making such provocative statements at any given opportunity.
“This is not the first time Senator Wadada made such public utterances at any given opportunity. He made them privately and publicly without minding whose ox is gored.”
“He made similar statements during a program organised by Alago APC’s forum on the 8th of June, 2024, at De Ist Crown Hotel, Lafia, where he embarked on his misadventure of whipping an unnecessary settlers/indigene conundrum.”
“Thank goodness Wadada personally exposed his identity: He’s not an indigene of Nasarawa State, rather a Gobirawa by tribe from Kebbi State, whose parents migrated to Nasarawa town before his father recently relocated to Keffi,” the statement said.
