Tiv youths to Taraba Gov: Return our IDPs home | Tellwell Newspaper

The Tiv Youths in Taraba State, under the umbrella of Taraba Tiv Youth Progressive Mission (TTYPM), have expressed worry over the prolonged silence of the state governor, Arc Darius Dickson Ishaku, over the return of Tiv IDPs in the southern part of the state to their ancestral homes.

The youths, at a press conference in Jalingo, lamented that for over three years now, their internally displaced relatives in the southern part of the state, have been languishing in dehumanizing conditions in their locations of refuge without government intervention and care.

The spokesman of the group, Mr Kaduna Fanen, who narrated the ordeal of the Tiv people in the area, noted that a population of over ten thousand people had already been frustrated from registering in the just concluded PVC registration owing to the numerous challenges they are passing through, while  more than thirty thousand people are likely to be disenfranchised in the next election if they are not returned to their ancestral homes.

The group recalled that the governor had in several fora, pledged to return the displaced persons to their ancestral homes, but it is over three years now and that pledge has not been fulfilled.

“Some of our elders and leaders have done everything necessary to restore peace in our areas,” Fanen recalled,” adding, “They have met with traditional leaders in our areas and engaged them in peace talks on several occasions but the only thing they keep telling them is that it is only the governor that has the power to return our displaced persons to their ancestral homes.”

He complained that the governor had, however, been sileny about it for over three years now for whatever reasons.

“We want to use this opportunity to state here unequivocally  without fear or favour that such Tiv leaders have already failed  this time around,” the youth leader said,” adding, “No matter the number of endorsements they have done for candidates in our name on the pages of newspapers, we will never submit to any of their directives untill we see justice done to our people in the southern part of the state.”

He appealed to Governor Ishaku to return the Tiv IDPs to their ancestral homes in the southern part of the state to enable them fully exercise their franchise in the forthcoming elections.

He called on their representatives at the national and state assemblies to provide provide relief items to the IDPs, in keeping with their mandate of catering for their constituents.

The group also called on all the candidates seeking elective positions in the southern part of the state to collaborate with it in the struggle for justice for the Tiv population in Taraba.