By Yakubu Busari,Jos
The Emir of Wase, Alhaji Mohammed Haruna Sambo has appealed to Federal government to take decisive steps against those causing conflicts around Wase.
Addressing women protesters at the Wase LGA Guest House, Caretaker chairman of the Wase LGA,
Haruna Abdul Zakare who spoke through the councilor for Education, Umar Jibrin, said the conflicts in Wase were being inflicted by people from outside as all tribes around Wase dwelled together peacefully, calling on all authorities to close ranks and restore lasting peace to the community.
The crisis which was introduced by leaders of Wase emirate council in 1998 over control of government activities to humiliate some natives of the council needs the intervention of the Emir.
Attempts to get STF to speak on the Wase incident failed as a text message and calls to the Force’s spokesman, Capt Ihedichi Iweha, had not been answered up to when this report was filed about 3.30 pm yesterday.
What women intended as a peace rally to awaken the consciousness of Nigeria and the global community to the conflicts which have troubled Wase over the past decade, turned violent in the southern Plateau town yesterday when men of the Special Task Force (STF) stationed in the town lashed out at the women and school children that formed the stream of the rally, thereby preventing the advance of the procession to their scheduled last point of call, the Wase Divisional Police Headquarters.
The participants of the rally which was organized by Wase Women Development Association (WAWODA) had headed to the STF base from the nearby Wase LGA Guest House when the soldiers rose and whipped participants of the rally who got within their reach, heading off the rest of the participants and creating tension in the ancient town by their behaviour which the organizers said was a shock to them.
“We told them we were holding this peace rally and the sector commander assured us of our safety, we can’t understand why they should do this,” interim coordinator of WAWODA, Hajia Safiya Adamu said in a press interview following the incident,” adding, “We can’t continue this peace rally now because we don’t know what these people mean. This is the kind of treatment we get from these men who are deployed to protect us.”
Five school children and a woman were injured, some directly from the cane the soldiers used and some from a fall in the course of a stampede from the soldiers; an irony of a rally in which women held placards complaining that conflicts had made them widows and children projecting their own placards grieving that they had been orphaned and their education imperilled.
Wase, a town and local government area headquarters made famous mainly by the influential Wase Emirate and one of Nigeria’s biggest lone-stone mountain, Wase Rock, has been faced with violent conflicts for more than 10 years, as noted by WAWODA which arranged the peace rally with participants of Muslim and Christian women and school children from Wase LGA’s four districts: Wase, Kadarko, Lamba and Bashar.
“Because this is not a protest, we asked women to dress in white to signify peace, as our goal is to restore lasting peace,” one of the coordinators of the rally, Mrs Lantana Abdullahi said in a pre-rally interview.
The rally was held in Wase town, with the Central Field as meeting point, from where they walked to the Emir’s Palace, and then to the Wase Local Government Guest House. It was when they headed to the STF base about 300 metres from the Guest House that trouble started, with the soldiers brandishing their whips and the rally organisers striving anxiously to pacify some Wase youths who were attracted to the scene and who were protesting the action of the soldiers.
The leader of Tarok community in Wase, Mr Lohbut Jangle who spokes under the condition of the crisis accused the leadership of Wase for inciting Muslim against the Tarok in over 200 villages killing and causing mayhem destroyed the farmland.
He lamented that they were living peaceful with the late Emir Abdullahi Maikano until his demise, the emirate gang up to attack our after declaring A Tarok person as the councilorship representing Lamba district.
“We are calling on Federal government to create Kadarko Local government for convenient of administration because they Muslim refused to share position with other ethnic tribes , we zone chairmanship between Muslim and Christian.”
