A coalition of Tiv community leaders in Nasarawa State has appealed to President Bola Tinubu, the National Security Adviser and other security agencies to take proactive steps to ensure the safety and security of lives and property of Tiv people who have continued to seek peaceful coexistence with other ethnic groups in the state.
The leaders of the ethnic group living in Nasarawa state who made the appeal during a media briefing in Abuja on Sunday, raised concerns about what they described as a calculated plan by the authorities to depopulate and displace Tiv indigenes from their ancestral lands under the guise of agricultural development.
They also appealed to President Bola Tinubu and the National Security Adviser to intervene urgently in the matter, describing the agricultural mandate being touted as a cover.
According to them the initiative is about land grabbing, erasure of Tiv identity, and commercializing the lives and property of the people for personal gain.
The coalition alleged that buildings in the entire Tiv communities of Udugh, Usula, China, Chabo, Wachi, Tyungu, Uvirkaa, Ugba, Ayarkeke, and over a dozen others have either been demolished or marked for destruction, or the inhabitants are facing forced displacement.
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The coalition noted that in Udugh village, bulldozers arrived with armed soldiers and civil defence operatives to destroy homes, schools, churches, and even graveyards following a visit by Nasarawa State Governor on May 4 and the people had no option than to abandon their ancestral homes.
They further alleged that women in Osula village were driven from their farmlands by government agents, leaving families vulnerable and without their only means of livelihood.
The group urged the Federal Government to deploy its security apparatus to the the affected areas, halt the demolitions, and investigate some of the issues alleged to be fueling the crisis in Nasarawa State.
(Editor: Okechukwu Eze)
