~When Lies overtake truth for a moment, Putting the records straight on the Murder of Gara of Chanchanji and the Arrest of Mr Salem Mela
On the 21st of August, 2024, the entire Chanchanji town was unsettled following the arrest of Mr Salem Mela (the chairman of Chanchanji Youth Peace Committee), his pregnant wife and his six children in Mela Village, Chanchanji-Takum at about 1:00am by a joint operation of Soldiers from 6 brigade Battalion and the Department of State Services (DSS).
The men raided the village in their numbers and shot indiscriminately at living houses without a rethink of possible casualties from the shootings, and harassed every Mela family member on sight, ordering elderly people to lie face down for hours and battering others with gun handles before arresting and bundling Mr Salem and his immediate family members to a yet to be known destination. While it is normal for security agencies to make arrests for interrogation, the unprofessional conduct of the military during the arrest and the subsequent disgraceful tribal profiling of Tiv tribe in the press briefing by the 6 brigade battalion has raised a lot of concerns and queries about the professionalism and discipline that defines the military ranks and files. Could the arrest and name calling of Mr Salem be one of similar past attempts by security agencies to link every criminality in southern Taraba to Tiv tribe before investigation?
There are misgivings on the unbiased standing of the 6 brigade battalion in the unfolding events as carefully chronicled. Few days after Mr Salem was arrested, the 6 brigade battalion announced the arrest of suspected criminal elements across Taraba state on national dailies. Over sixteen suspects were reportedly arrested, stating the allegations against their names and places of arrest including the weapons and other incriminating possessions.
The 6 brigade battalion never recorded the tribes of all the other non-Tiv suspects including those who were armed during arrest, but emphatically reechoed that Mr Salem –the suspected mastermind of the assassination of Gara is a TIV man, technically accusing the Tiv tribe of Chanchanji district over the assassination of the Chamba monarch. We want to state unequivocally, that the 6 brigade battalion failed the test of trust, unbiasedness and professionalism by this singular act of tribal profiling. Should suspects become the basis for defamation and derogation of tribes? If yes, why were the tribes of the other suspects not mentioned for defamation? Was the battalion attempting to create discord and hostility between the Tiv and Chamba people? The military must urgently clear the air on these questions and query that bias reportage. For the Tivs in Taraba, the right to be considered innocent until proven otherwise by facts and evidence in a court of competent jurisdiction is never tenable because security agencies acting on the orders of powers that be have permanently tagged the Tiv people criminals and ipso facto must always be seen and treated as such.
Chronicles of past events can validate this claim. Every criminal activity in southern Taraba is blamed on Tiv People
even before the commencement of investigation, until facts vindicate us, and no apologies are given afterwards.
In 2017, when Hon Hosea Ibi was kidnapped and subsequently murdered at the instance of the then Executive Chairman of Takum LGA, Hon Shiban Tikari, many people including security agents were calling for the heads of the Tiv people in hand even before investigation. This nearly severed the relationship between the Tivs and the Kutebs in Takum. Hon Shiban was later pronounced guilty for the murder and his arrest was ordered by the Taraba state Chief Judge in the court of law. It may interest the reader to note that the Hon is yet to face justice for that wickedness but was rather rewarded with an appointment recently as special Adviser to the government of Taraba and no apologies have been tendered to the the Tivs in Takum for defamation.
In 2023, the then Chairman of Takum LGA, Hon Manja was kidnapped along Ahmadu- Takum road in Takum LGA. The then governor of Taraba state, Arc Darius Dickson Ishaku who was supposedly the father to all Tarabans and the chief security officer of the state summoned all Tiv stakeholders from Takum in Jalingo and gave them 24 hours to ensure the release of Hon Manja, threatening also that should anything bad happen to the honourable, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of Tiv people in Takum. Fortunately, the Hon was released a few days after only to confess on TTV news that it was his brothers from Takum that kidnapped him and not Tiv people.
One would have expected the governor to apologize to the same people he summoned and threatened, but no apologies were given to date. Alas, a Tiv man in southern Taraba is perceived guilty not for the content of his character but for the Tivness in him. Recently, Criminal elements attacked and Murdered 6 travelers including the provost of School of Health Technology Takum around Shinku on the Takum- Wukari road and without investigation, the Tivs were already profiled to be hated and insulted by others for killing innocent travelers. This profiling led to the death of six Tiv students in Takum Town. War mongers were calling for the roll of heads of Tiv people. Unbeknown to the profilers and their co-travellers, a tiv man who was the principal of GSS Akwana, was among the 6 casualties. Same criminals who murdered the six travelers in cold blood also went on rampage, attacking and macheting anyone they found on the farm as they withdrew to their hideout. All the casualties of this later attack are Tiv people, justifying the simple fact that criminality is just a syndicate of different tribes who synergize to do wicked for their gains but not to target any one tribe. There are innumerable cases of such reprisal killings of our people and once investigation reveals later that we are not responsible ab initio, nothing happens unapologetically.
Circumstances after the arrest of Mr Salem have remained uncanny and strange. The peace committee which Salem Chairs with over 200 other members have surprisingly become criminals and assassins overnight before security agents and members of the committee have become preys to be hunted down or severely battered unjustly by security agencies that hitherto sanctioned their existence and sung several praises for their peace initiatives.
It may interest any reader to note that the peace committee was a creation of necessity in Chanchanji district. Criminal activities (robbery, Kidnappings, assassinations, clannish hostilities etc) became so rampant in Chanchanji district at a point, leading to collapse of markets and other economic activities. The youths decided to form the peace committee to broker peace among the clans in Chanchanji and to unite the people against all kinds of criminal activities in Chanchanji district. Mr Salem Mela was unanimously appointed the Chairman of the committee, given his pedigree of hate for crime, acceptability by youths and leadership experience which manifested even during his days as an undergraduate student in the department of Political Science at FUW where he was the Community of Tiv students (CTS) president.Immediately after his appointment as chairman of the Peace committee, Mr Salem led other members of the Peace committee to confab with the Executive Chairman of Takum LGA Hon Danjuma Ali on the 31/3/2024 in Takum, the Commanding officer of AdA Barracks Takum on the 22/3/2024 in Takum, The Divisional Police officer of Takum on the 21/3/2024 in Takum, Traditional Rulers in Chanchanji, the clergy and other opinion leaders to seek their sanction and legitimize the peace committee’s mission of uniting the people of Chanchanji district to end all kinds of criminality in the district. Pictorial evidences of the meetings of the Peace committee with the mentioned authorities are readily available for avoidance of doubt. The big question that any reasonable person may want to ask is that, at what point exactly did the Peace committee and its chairman become criminals/assassins? Where are the evidences to link Mr Salem Mela and the Peace committee to the murder of the monarch? Time will reveal the truth indeed.
There are certainly conspiracies of silence by security agencies within Takum who sanctioned the activities of The Salem led Peace committee and openly commended the committee for bringing relative calm in Chanchanji district but are now denying ever meeting with the Peace committee and the conspiracy of incriminating every activity and member of the Peace committee for destruction by those who are hell-bent on instigating division and disunity within clans that make up Chanchanji district obviously because they are feeding fat on the disunity and criminality that emanates from such divisions. We suspect strongly, that the same people who never wanted the Peace committee to exist and broker peace amongst the clans of Chanchanji district are the ones feeding security agents with lies to destroy the committee and its members.So far, we are pleased with the disposition of his excellency, governor Agbu Kefas and his standing against ethnic profiling in the state. His prompt response to the news of the murder of the monarch saved Chanchanji district from imminent crisis and we must appreciate him for that. We however, want to call the attention of his excellency to be mindful of some government officials who are anti-peace and would stop at nothing less than inciting ethnic conflict and planting seeds of discord in Chanchanji district for only God knows reasons.
His Excellency must not allow such people succeed in giving his good government a bad name and soiling the hard earned reputation of justice, truth and unbiasedness that he built over these years.
We plead with His Excellency to ensure that no man is made to suffer merely on the basis of tribe, religion or mere hatred without concrete evidence of crime.While we are fully in support of a proper investigation into the murder of the late monarch for the culprits to be brought to book for the whole world to know the true assassins, we make bold to insist that our chairman and other members of the Peace Committee are not criminals. We challenge the military to bring up incriminating evidences against the committee if at all there are or stop harassing our members and free Mr Salem Mela. As the saying goes, lies may travel very fast and wide, but truth will surely overtake lies one day.
-Peace Committee .
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