Youth group from Takum Local Government of Taraba state have raised concerns over the worsening rate of insecurity in their communities which is a threat to peace and security in the region.
In a statement issued to newsmen and signed by its chairman Irdomiya A. Danjuma, the group said the security challenges has encouraged many to relocate from the area, thereby affecting economic activities drastically.
The statement also added that residents no longer feel safe in their houses as they close their activities of the day by 7 pm and also, travelers and indigenes who reside outside the area cannot travel in or out of the area without engaging the services of security agents else they would be kidnapped.
“The security situation in Takum has reared its ugly head in another dimension. Takum which is the Local Government Area of origin to Gen. TY Danjuma Rtd and the Executive Governor of Taraba State Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has been taken over by deadly hoodlums and nothing is being done about it” he said.
The group noted that several people have been killed since the abduction and subsequent murder of the then serving member house of Assembly who was representing Takum 1 Constituency in December 2017, Barr Hosea Ibi.
“On May 1, 2019 a Hilux Van belonging to Mr. Shiban Tikari, the Takum Local Government Council Chairman was intercepted by the Nigerian Army based on intelligence information from the Youths of Yangtu Special Development Area that the said Hilux conveyed and deposited two unidentified corpses along Kwambai/Kwari axis where the corpse of Late Hon. Barr. Hosea Ibi was deposited by his killers in January 2017.”
Two of the suspects caught were Nuvalga Bokunga who is one of the council Chairman’s driver and the other is one Ishaku Williams. The Corpses and the Van are presently in Police custody awaiting further investigation” Irdomiya added.
The group said Lt. Gen. TY Danjuma who cried out in 2018 that the Nigerian Army were colluding with some bandits for ethnic cleansing was “just a mere cover-up of the act of inhumanity being carried out by the Takum Local Government Area Council Chairman Shiban Tikari and his cohort in the State”.
The group appealed to the President to look into the matter and intervene by bringing the perpetrators to book.