Hausa-Fulani leaders said fresh attacks were continuing on the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State and staged a walkout from a peace meeting in protest.
The meeting was organized to address the series of attacks in Mambilla last month, saying there was no need to sit and talk when their people were still being killed.
The meeting at the multi-purpose hall of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Gembu, headquarters of the Sardauna LGA, was between them and the Mambilla community arranged by the Taraba State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and their Muslim counterpart.
The Chairman of the Sardauna LGA branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello who spoke on behalf of the Hausa-Fulani community, said the peace talk was an exercise in futility until the perpetrators of the killings were prosecuted and the attacks and killing of their members stopped.
Bello said justice could not be seen to be done until government was willing to do the right thing. “We have written to the government calling for the arrest and prosecution of both the Speaker of the state House of Assembly Hon Abel Peter Diah and the local government chairman Mr John Yep who have been fingered as the principal perpetrators of the attacks,” he said, adding, “The attacks were not religious but an attempt to wipe out the entire Fulani and their cattle from the Mambilla Plateau which is their ancestral home. If the religious bodies and the state government were sincere about peace in the area, the killing must stop and any person found involved no matter his position must be made to face the law.”
Earlier in their separate presentations, both the CAN Chairman Rev. Ben Ube and Muslim Council Alhaji Inusa Jauro Manu said the meeting was to appeal to the communities to bury their differences and embrace peace.
They said that the two religious bodies were not in Gembu to apportion blame but to preach for peace to reign in the area while the government and security agencies were investigating the causes of the attacks.
Daily Trust reports that between June 18 and June 27, 2017, the Mambilla militia launched attacks on several Fulani settlements in the Sardauna LGA, killing hundreds and destroying properties.
Contacted, the Public Relations Officer of Taraba Police Command, DSP David Misal said the command was not aware of any fresh attack in any part of the Mambilla Plateau.
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