Tiv Youth Agenda, TYA has accused the Sultan of Sokoto, His Majesty Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III of ridiculing the Tiv nation.
The group, in a statement issued by its convener, Benedict Tivkaa Iaren made the assertion while reacting to allegations by the Sultan that some Tiv citizens are cattle rustlers.
The statement reads, “There could be no platform or occasion presently fit for any reference to that objectionable obscenity of Tiv stealing Fulani cattle, which some have sought vainly to push as a narrative justifying acts of genocide by the Fulani against the Tiv in the latter’s ancestral lands.
“Quite obnoxiously, the crude accusation by the Sultan against the Tiv came closely on the heels of Governor Alia’s remarks in Sankera the other day, where he had claimed that the recent spate of herdsmen attacks and killings of people, including women, children and the aged, was the result of theft by some Tiv of cattle belonging to the herders.
“The co-travelling of Governor Alia’s accusation in Sankera against the Tiv and the Sultan’s re-echoing of it only a day after in Sokoto exposes a ‘consensus ad idem’ which was reinforced by the governor himself when he rose to speak at the occasion.
“The Benue State Governor, for the very first time since coming to power, deferred to a mere mortal as his superior, referring to the Sultan in fawning fashion as “My Daddy”.
“This is the same man who while campaigning for Governor would pay obeisance profusely to the leader of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State, Senator George Akume, as “My Leader”, “My Father”, but since assuming office, the same Akume has become “My Son”, one for whom what he now reserves are gutter-level insults issued regularly through his Chief Press Secretary.
“This is the same Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia who has never referred to the Tor Tiv anywhere as his father, but kow-towed’ to the Sultan of Sokoto as “My Daddy”, at a time and occasion when what was expected from him was ‘Holy Anger’ against the reference to his ancestral Tiv race as thieves.
“The youths of Tivland have taken judicious notice of this unholy and evil ‘meeting of minds’ between Governor Alia and his “Daddy”, the Sultan of Sokoto, at a time the streams in our land, instead of flowing with water, are flowing with the blood of our dear ones butchered in the most barbaric fashion.
“What a fine time for Governor Hyacinth Iormem Alia to be fathered by Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, when the Tiv whose lives and properties he (Alia) swore on oath to defend, are being killed and purged from their ancestral lands which are then taken over by the brothers of his “Daddy” the Sultan.
“A time when it is increasingly becoming a question-with-no-answer where land is to be found for the coming planting season for a people whose very existence is rooted in this land which is being swallowed up by the heaviest influx of Fulani herdsmen and their cattle since the creation of Benue State, in brazen violation of the existing ban on open grazing of livestock in the state.
“Governor Alia had issued a 14 days ultimatum to the herders to leave the state, which elapsed some four days back, but the governor’s charge to security agencies to swing into action and enforce the ban sounds as hollow as “ubokoti” (empty metal buckets).
“This is a governor who places such low premium on security matters that he made all other appointments into his government before public pressure compelled him to appoint some persons into certain nebulous and chaotic roles as security aides.
“He has also to date turned a blind eye to the begging need for logistical and equipment supports to the security agencies in the state, the same ones he has charged to go out there and roll back the behemoth of thousands of Fulani herdsmen and hundreds of thousands of their cattle presently ravaging farms and settlements across the state.
“Governor Alia it was who willfully threw open the gates of Benue for the herdsmen and their cattle to instream, by tacitly demobilizing the Benue Livestock Guards which was the lawful enforcement arm of the Prohibition of Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law (2017)
“The governor suspended the Commander of the Livestock Guards and clamped on him charges of “stockpiling arms”, whatever that means, even as it is an open fact that from May 2023 to date the wages and allowances of the Guards have been withheld, thereby effectively rendering them inoperative.
“It was, therefore, the height of absurdity when Governor Alia declared that he was in Sokoto State and taking notes about the local vigilante being launched there, so he may come back home and implement the same in Benue.
“Was it not from Benue State, through the bold, innovative and determined measures adopted by Governor Alia’s immediate predecessor, Chief Samuel Ortom, that other states in Nigeria derived the will, impetus and nous to implement local measures against insecurity?
“But since the gathering in Sokoto was a bazaar of shame, anything was permissible, including the confusion of a governor declaring like an over excited child,. that he was “learning in Sokoto what ha already has in his sokoto”.
“Tiv Youth Agenda makes it emphatically clear to Governor Hyacinth Alia and his “Daddy” in Sokoto that the Tiv are victims of a genocidal war of conquest launched by the herdsmen and their powerful and wealthy sponsors, which intent and purpose is the depopulation and occupation of our land, and this is a fact no false narrative, no matter how smoothly crafted, will change”.