Twenty-five people were on Tuesday night killed in a renewed crisis between the Jukuns and the Hausas in Wukari local government area of Taraba State.
The crisis, was a spillover from the problem between the Tivs and Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau states.
An eyewitness who escaped the bloody attacks said over 200 houses in about four villages were razed down by the trouble makers, just as the roads leading from the north-east zone to the southern part of the country has been closed down by the military Joint Task Force.
However, the police public relations officer (PPRO), ASP Joseph Kwaji, confirmed that seven people were killed during the incident. Other eyewitnesses said that the killings and burning had been on from 7:30pm on Tuesday to noon on Wednesday.
Narrating the ugly incident, the chairman of the State House of Assembly Committee on Information, Hon. Ishaya Daniel Gani, who lost his elder brother on Tuesday night, told journalists in his residence that even as he was speaking, he could not witness the burial of his late brother (Yakubu Musa Gallunje) whose interment was going due to sporadic shooting, burning and imposition of 24-hour curfew.
The lawmaker said that reports reaching him had confirmed that one military man had been killed in the process, two seriously in danger, while his newly completed rented house and two churches were razed down. “I have no access to my local government/constituency to see my people as I am speaking with you people unless through GSM handset and a majority of the people especially non-indigenes are said to have fled the area since Tuesday night,” he said. Gani however call on constituted authority to draft more military personnel to the area, or else the crisis may engulf the entire state.
Chief press secretary to the acting governor Mr Kefas Sule told journalists that the state government was taking steps to control the situation, saying that a 24-hour curfew had been imposed until further notice.
Meanwhile, commuters and motorists, especially those travelling to the southern part of the country and their counterparts moving towards the north-east axis of the country, have been stranded.
