A group, Tiv Youths Organisation has called on the federal government to stop the killing of Tivs in Nasarawa State by militia herdsmen.
At a press conference in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital yesterday, the group’s president, Barr Barnabas Zayol, drew the attention of the state and federal governments to the security threat orchestrated by some traditional rulers and herdsmen against Tivs in Nasarawa South senatorial district.
He said their kinsmen in some villages in Lafia, Doma, Obi, Awe and Keana of the district were being attacked on a regular basis and chased out of their ancestral homes.
Zayol said, “What surprised us is the taking over of our ancestral farmlands by the attackers. Some of the traditional rulers are saying that we are settlers and non-indigenes.”
The group alleged that many Tiv people had been killed in some attacks and their property destroyed.
He, however, applauded Governor Abdullahi Sule for always being proactive on security issues concerning them and appealed to him not to relent.
He also appealed to the governor to fast-track the work of a panel set up to look into their issue with a view to implementing the report of the panel.
“Doing so will engender peace and tranquility in the affected areas and help find a lasting solution to the immediate and remote cause of the problem,” he added.
Zayol called for a visible security presence in the rural areas to enable the people to go about their farming and trading activities without fear of attacks.
