By Muhammad Tanko Shittu
Victims of the Wukari/Ibi crisis in Taraba state who are now taking refuge as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Kanam local government area of Plateau state have vowed never to return to their place of abode in Taraba.
Some of the IDPs who spoke to our correspondent in Dengi and Jarmai, where they were being camped, said they were afraid and uncertain of their fate should they return to Wukari and Ibi local governments areas.
The crisis that had engulfed the two local government areas in the past couple of weeks had led to the flight of the over 2,000 IDPs to Kanam and Wase where they are taking refuge even as Blueprint gathered that most of them are indigenes.
One Hamisu Garba said the way they were attacked by gunmen, “I don’t think it is wise or safe for anyone of us to return to Taraba state.”
He said: “We just saw people returning towards us, shooting guns indiscriminately and attacking houses and burning any house they came across; we had to run for our dear lives.”
Also lamenting her ordeal, Mrs. Hajara Umar, a mother of three, said, “I don’t want to die prematurely, so I will not return to that place.
“What will I go back there for when our family house has been destroyed by the attackers, who set it on fire and even destroyed our crops?”
She appealed to the federal and state governments, as well as concerned individuals, to come to their aid, saying, “We are sleeping on bare floors with our little children in this cold and rainy season.”
One of the victims, who is also the Majority Leader of Kanam Legislative Council, Umar Abubakar, said he was grateful to God for saving his family in Wukari even though his house and property were burnt.
The Kanam local government council Councillor for Social Services, Mrs. Laitu Dembo, told our correspondent that the statistic of the IDPs stood at 205 households and was made up of 285 women, 944 children and 518 men, including youths.
She said since arrival of the IDPs, the council had succeeded in camping them at Council Guest House 1 and Jarmai village, “and we have provided them with foodstuff, mats and blankets.”
Dembo said those that had relations or friends had left the camp to keep up with them, pending when the federal and state governments, through NEMA and SEMA, would come to their rescue.
However, Blueprint observed that amongst the IDPs were pregnant women, some of whom had said they had lost their husbands in the crisis.
The North-central coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Malam Muhammad Abdussalam, yesterday told Blueprint that they were aware that there were IDPs that had fled Taraba to Plateau state.
He said: “We are aware that they are in Kanam and even some are in Wase LGA of Plateau state, there were some others even at Shabu in Nasarawa state, but we do not have their figures; we have asked the LG officials to give us the numbers so that by tomorrow, we will be able to act appropriately.”
When contacted, the Executive Secretary of the Plateau State Emergency Agency (SEMA), Alhaji Alhassan Barde, said yesterday that they had on Saturday, last week, sent some packages of relief materials to the two camps of the IDPs in Dangi and Wase.
“You can call and confirm from the council chairmen that we have sent them some food items, clothes and toiletries at least for the mean time,” he said.
