[size=18pt]Ethnic nationalities in Jos Threaten Court Action Over Report[/size]

Wednesday, 08 September 2010 11:25 administrator

From MARIAM ALESHINLOYE AGBOOLA, Jos


Ethnic nationalities in Jos consisting of the Beroms, Anaguta and Afizere have threatened to resist any attempt by the Federal Government to create a new district for the Hausa/Fulani living in Jos.
It was reported that the Presidential Advisory Committee, headed by Chief Solomon Lar, had purportedly recommended that a new district be created for the Hausa/Fulani living in Jos.
The nationalities, speaking under the aegis of United Middle Belt Congress, insisted that the recommendation was insensitive and a betrayal of other ethnic nationalities, such as the Ibos, the Urhobos and Yorubas, living among the indigenes, pointing out that any recommendation applicable to the Hausa/Fulani must be extended to the other tribes because they also control a sizeable portion of the area (the present Jos).
However, National Assembly member, representing Plateau North Senatorial District, Senator Gyang Dantong, hadcalled on members of his constituency to remain calm over the précis published in some national dailies on Solomon Lar’s report. He explained that the committee did not make most of the recommendations published in some national dailies.
Spokesperson for the group, Dr. Anto Yuhana Oganto, recalled how the Hausa/Fulani, with a strong economic power, had increased their ownership of land through the Plateau State Government policy on land. The policy, he said, made them (the Hausa/Fulani), in 1987 to control 69.5 per cent of the land in Jos.
He also said the indigenes had complained bitterly over the introduction of an edict during Babangida’s regime which made the Hauasa/Fulani indigenes of Jos and its environment. “So far they had stayed in Jos for 20 years and such rare privileged could not be conferred on other ethnic groups in Kano, Katsina, Zamfara and Sokoto states.”
According to him, the design tofinally seize Jos was taken by creating Jos North Local Government Area by the Babangida’s administration and this, he said, was solidified by the appointment of a Hausa/Fulani man from Bauchi as the chairman by the Abacha’s regime.
He complained that electoral wards were also designed in Jos to suit the Hausa Fulani, reiterating that the presidential committee report just submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan was another government instrument to complete the total takeover of Jos by the northern ruling class.
The UMBC, he pointed out, had started making consultations with some of the best legal luminaries in the country to challenge the committee’s recommendations. “Any attempt to implement them would amount to a forceful annexation of indigenous landmass and illegal transfer of such annexed properties to appease desperate charlatans.
Senator Datong, who served as a member in the committee, told journalists at a forum in Jos, that members of the committee would soon issue strong worded paper to debunk the stories published in some of the national dailies as most of them were not true and were capable of threatening the peace in the area.
He said it was unfortunate that before the report got to the president, who set up the committee, people had began to publish stories in the papers as part of the report, insisting that some of the stories in the papers were not the things the committee discussed.
“How can we discuss the rotation of Jos North Local Government chairmanship when we are looking for things that would bring peace and stability?”

While insisting that some of the things are probably sponsored, he said ‘many of us in the committee would come out with strong worded paper to debunk the things published in the papers.

The only person that should say what is in the report is the president himself who set up the committee and gave members the job to do.’ While calling on people stop publishing things on the report because of the fragile peace in the state, he said those giving out false information do not mean Plateau well as they have failed to put into cognizance the number of people that have died during the crisis and only want to set people up again.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=453:ethnic-nationalities-in-jos-threaten-court-action-over-report&catid=102:national&Itemid=481

Wow! The beroms and other indigenous groups in Jos are really being kicked out of their land for real! Fulanis owned 69.5% land in Jos!

The march to the sea continues.