Taraba State Governor, Darius Dickson Ishaku has pleaded with Tiv leaders in Benue and Taraba States to assist in facilitating the on-going peace initiative of his administration in Southern Taraba.
Governor Ishaku made the plea Saturday in Abuja during the wedding of his daughter, Clara Kairi Ishaku.
Clara was on Saturday, September 5, 2020, married to Dooyun Stephen Ugbor, an Air Force pilot and a Tiv from Benue State.
The Tiv and the Jukun, of southern Taraba, are engaged in a crisis that has persisted for several years and claimed many lives, houses, and farm produce.
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Ishaku in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and publicity Bala Dan Abu, and emailed to our correspondent in Jalingo said several people had asked why he was allowing his daughter to marry from an ethnic group that was killing his people.
Gov Ishaku said he had always told such people that the crisis was not enough reason for him to stop his daughter from marrying the man she had fallen in love with. Rather, he encouraged the union as a means of building a bridge of friendship and understanding between the warring groups.
He urged the Tiv and the Jukun to take advantage of social interactions such as inter-ethnic marriages to resolves their differences.
Gov Ishaku expressed unhappiness over the decision of the Tiv group not to cooperate with the Judicial Commission of Inquiry he had set up to resolve the crisis noting that the setting up of a judicial commission of Inquiry had always featured constantly on the demand list by the Tiv for ending the crisis.
Gov Ishaku expressed surprise that the same people will now turn round to reject and work against the success of the commission that they had always asked for.
Ishaku urged the Tiv to return to the Commission as it provides them the best opportunity for them to state their case.
