Taraba Assembly Admits Failure, Asks FG To Take Over State

The Taraba state House of Assembly yesterday passed a resolution directing the state executive arm of government to request the federal government to take over the security situation in some parts of the state affected by the recent wave of sectarian attacks.

A motion to this effect was raised under matters of urgent public importance co-sponsored by the seven members of the assembly representing the five local government areas that constitute Taraba South senatorial district.

The house also directed the executive arm of government to send enough relief materials to all the victims in all the affected areas. 

The motion also urged the executive arm of government to direct the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to release enough funds to the affected local councils so that they could adequately meet their security challenges.

The executive arm was also urged to direct the appropriate agency of government to resuscitate all vigilante groups in the state, so that they would assist security agencies in the state in intelligence gathering and other security networking. 

The members, Hon. Josiah Sabo Kente, Hon. Haruna Gbana, Hon. Mark Useni and Hon. Ishaya Daniel Gani, representing Wukari 1, Donga, Takum II and Wukari II state constituencies respectively, all spoke on the floor of the house to confirm their sponsorship of the motion. 

Others are Hon. Mohammed Abdulkarim, Hon. Daniel Tsokwa and Hon. Yohanna Iratsi Adaki, representing Ibi, Takum 1 and Ussa state constituencies respectively.

All the members who contributed on the floor of the house spoke in support of the motion but more conspicuous of them was the former speaker of the house, Hon. Haruna Gbana, who was very elaborate on the points earlier mentioned in the motion. 

According to the former speaker, the state authorities, inclusive of the house, have failed the electorate, and he and his colleagues were therefore calling on the federal government to take over and stop the shedding of innocent people’s blood and that if they did not take such a stand the blood would visit their lives. 

Gbana explained further that more than 100 people have lost their lives in the crises out of levity without regard to the fact that a government that plays with the security of the citizenry is doomed forever. 

He therefore advised all politicians in the state to shelve their political differences and come together and foster a common force to end the killings.

Gbana, a former chairman of Conference of Nigerian Speakers, also informed the house that the funds for the local government administration in the state has been used up by the state government, rendering the local government chairmen helpless in the face of security challenges. 

He also said the attacks in southern Taraba are carried out by outsiders, thereby making the federal government intervention with a federal might necessary. 

After exhaustive debates and contributions, the speaker, Josiah Sabo Kente, put a question and the motion was unanimously voted for.

The speaker was then directed to communicate the acting Governor Garba Umar the decision of the house. 

The four out of the five local government areas that constitute southern Taraba and Gassol local government in central Taraba have come under a series of attacks in the past two weeks that have defied solutions. 

The death toll was put at 100 people and the property destroyed is enormous.

The acting governor visited the area and 24 hours after his return another attack was carried out the following day another attack in which 25 people were killed and a whole village razed, but he denied knowledge of it.