agents in Nasarawa State with reports indicating that that the battle for 2015
governorship between Governor Tanko Al-Makura and the Minister of Information,
Labaran Maku, was the motivating force behind the killings, counter-killings
and violence in the state.
Investigation by Sunday Tribune revealed that the
Ombatse group behind the killings and counter-killings is the front for the
majority Nassarawa Eggon people who are bent on producing the next governor of
the state, while the state governor represents the other ethnic population of the
state bent on retaining the governorship in 2015.
While the Eggon are said to be consolidating their
hold on the majority through the Ombatse group ahead of 2015, those opposed to
their aspiration and sympathetic to the incumbent governor are reportedly
scheming to weaken and destroy the group before the next elections.
The confrontation reportedly led to the police
raid of Ombaste’s shrine located at Alogani village in late 2012, an event that
ended peacefully and was followed by peaceful demonstrations by Eggon people
across the state. It was gathered that the state governor was then barred from
visiting the shrine.
Following last year’s raid, Sunday Tribune learnt
that the pro-Muslim group and pro-Ombatse group had stepped up their scheming
with the Ombatse group said to be gaining the upper hand while selling their
son, Maku, as a replacement for Governor Al-Makura.
The situation was said have reached a climax in
December 2012, when the leader of the Ombatse group, Zachary Zamani Allumag, a
retired magistrate, opened up on developments in the state, blaming the tense
inter-ethnic relations on plot to stop the Eggon people from claiming their
right in the state’s politics.
According to him: “The reason there is serious
animosity against the Ombatse group is simply that they are aware that we went
to Azhili and prayed for the political landscape of Nasarawa State to change
for good; and, indeed, it changed. Our prayer is working. As 2015 is
approaching, we are aware that some people are planning to ensure the Eggon
nation is dislodged from the political landscape of the state. So, they call us
all kinds of names so that they can hang us.
“We also discovered that some politicians from
Eggon nation, the like of Solomon Ewuga, now a serving senator, who aspired to
be governor of the state, was rigged out by Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, the first
civilian governor during the PDP governorship primary election. As I am talking
to you now, the result of that primary election has not been declared, apart
from their simply saying Abdullahi Adamu won it. Nobody has told anybody what
margin he won with.
“As if that was the end, when his government got
to power, he conspired with other tribes in the state and brought up a policy
he called the deployment policy. In other words, according him, all Eggon
should leave wherever they are settled in the state to Nasarawa Eggon. A
decision that was challenged and we went as far to the Supreme Court and the
judgment was delivered April this year in our favour, declaring such directive
as illegal.
“It was an infringement on the fundamental right
of the Eggon people. They all know that the Eggon were on ground before whoever
arrived in Nasarawa State. And now, you are the one telling us today that we
should go to Nasarawa Eggon. I can assure you that no fewer than 20 of our
people died as a result of resisting that policy and the hardship it created.”
Sunday Tribune was told that all the ethnic undertones were captured in several
security reports which allegedly suggested an attempt at ethnic cleansing by
successive Muslim governors of the state.
