The Alago and Eggon people have been driven away from their homes into exile at Dunama Primary School, Lafia, Nasarawa State, following the ethnic crisis that engulfed the area. Umar Muhammed, who visited  the  scene  of the  crisis, reports.

THE crisis which began in the early  hours  of Friday,  2 June,2012,  in which  about  10 persons  were  reported killed, made the state governor, Alhaji Umaru  Tanko  Al-Makura, to impose  a  dusk-to-dawn  curfew on the warring  villagers. It was  a war  they  never negotiated for, but  it came  like  a  thief  in the  night  and rocked  their  peace,  safety  and  properties.

For instance, the  popular  Assakio  peace market where traders from the North, South-West, South-East and  South-South engage in economic  activities is now  a  no-go  area  as  a  result of  the  ethnic  violence  that  engulfed it.

Gamji recalled  that the crisis had started about  three  weeks earlier like  a  child’s play, before it degenerated  into  an  avalanche  of killings  and  destruction, leading  to  total  breakdown  of law  and  order  in the  area.

Checks  by our  correspondent, who visited  the  scene  of the  crisis,  revealed that  the  town of  Assakio, the  commercials nerve centre  that  serves the  southern part  of the state, was  reduced  to  rubble.

Though  the statement  by  the  Eggons might  sound convincing, the Alagos,  however, disputed  it, saying  that  the area  in question was historically owned by them (Alagos), hence Alago established the traditional stool and have been on that throne for the 13th consecutive time since inception.              

Some Assakios, who were said to have braved the odds to return home, told our correspondent that they had been faced with the challenges of recovering corpses either from the collapsed walls of buildings or in the surrounding bushes since their return. They lamented that many people had deserted the town to places out of Nasarawa State, without  hope of returning home.

It is alleged that the Eggons were on a revenge mission based on the attack carried on then by the Alagos in 2007. The Alagos, according to reports, were said to have attacked the Eggons of Assakio over their (Eggon) support for Solomon Ewuga, who was vying for the governorship position of the state in the 2007 against the immediate past governor, Alhaji Aliyu Akwe Doma. Ewuga came from the Eggon extraction while Doma is of the Alago ethnicity.

The latest crisis is coming on the heels of the involvement of Governor Al–Makura managing a prolonged crisis between the peasant farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the southern senatorial zone of the state, a crisis which had claimed hundreds of lives. Al – Makura and his Benue state counterpart, Gabriel Suswan, have since received a report on the crisis and are studying it.

The Nasarawa  State  Police Command, with  the help of the  military  and men of Nigeria Security  and Civil  Defence  Corps  (NSCDC) deployed  to the  area  to maintain  law  and order, had paraded  over  18 persons believed  to have  links  with  the  bloody  ethnic  crisis. The spokesperson of the command, Mr Cornelius Ocholi, confirmed the arrest to the Gamji but could not give the actual number of victims.He  stated  that normalcy  had  since  returned  in the  area,  saying  that  heavy  security,  both  by the  police  and the military,  had  been  stationed  there in order to  avert any  further  attack.

Further findings  by Gamji  also  indicated  that  the Eggons in the  area  were  forced  to pay  taxes  to the  local  ruler,  who is an  Alago, with an allegation that  the Alago community within  the  area were  taking  unnecessary  advantage  of them.

The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abayomi Akeremale, in an exclusive interview with Gamji, explained that the Security Council had adopted measures to curb the crisis in the trouble area.

According to him, well armed military and mobile policemen had been deployed to all flash points and strategic locations as well as roads leading to Assakio to avert any possible fresh attack on the entire people of the community.

Speaking on the crisis, Governor Al-Makura said “We have put security men on the road now to stop and search so that people will not externalise the crisis, and also to control the movement of people coming in from other places.’’

“It is for this reason that, pursuant to my constitutional obligations and relevant extant provisions of law, government has constituted a high-powered commission of enquiring to investigate the Assakio ethnic clash,” the Governor said.

Inaugurating the commission, Al-Makura said: “Today’s event is a testimony of the determination of this administration to create an environment where sustainable peace and tranquillity will prevail as basic requirement for socio-economic growth and development.”

The commission has one mouth to submit its report to Government for immediate action. Be that as it may, the Nasarawa State government needs to wake up to its primary duty to provide welfare and security to its people to stop the state from gradually slipping into anarchy where every community will have to engage in self-help.