A ray of sunshine in Mambilla Plateau

Sometimes in February this year, the people of Mambilla Plateau, referring to the communities on the high hills of the sardauna local government area of Taraba state, were brought down to their knees by vicious ethno-religious crises. Lives were lost and properties,including livestock were destroyed. Some groups, who likened the crises to genocide, gave the casualty figures as at close to one thousand people. But governor Darius Ishaku, who was on the Mambila recentry, said only 264 persons were killed, even as he confirmed that property estimated to worth billions of naira, were destroyed.

But just as the surviving victims of the crisis were stitching their bruises and picking the broken pieces of their lives, governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, with a large team of executive members and some critical stakeholders arrived on the Mambilla Plateau. In the governor Ishaku’s luggage were assorted packages of life touching, succor giving initiatives, as well as kind hearted words that would calm their nerves and assuage their feelings. The governor packaged the initiative as Crisis Victims Support Scheme phase one.

In his address to the crisis victims in a well attended gathering, during the visit in Gembu, governor Darius Ishaku said “The Assessment Committee, which visited 53 communities in the area, discovered that 264 people were killed and not the over 1000 reported in the media…209 residents were displaced, 19, 464 cattle, 6, 071 sheep killed and ” a tea processing plant, among other valuable property, were burnt” He added.

Ishaku, therefore, donated N320 million to the victims, so as to mitigate the harshness of the sufferings. Relief materials were also distributed to the victims.

“I am not here to compensate the victims of the crisis that occurred here on Mambilla Plateau. Government does not have enough to compensate you on how much you lost, left alone the number of human beings that were killed…I am here to support you so that you can start living relatively better; to also encourage you to co-exist in harmony.” He told Mambila Plateau community.

The governor expressed happiness over the return of peace among the five tribes of Mambila Plateau, calling on the people to sustain the existing Peace to attract more development to their area.

The speaker Taraba state house of assembly Peter Abel Diya who is a son in the area, while commending the peace initiative by governor Ishaku call on the governor to establish tertiary institution within the area for training of youths and creation of employment among the people of Mambila Plateau.

The speaker assured the governor that all the affected people in the 2017/2018 crisis at Mambila Plateau have returned to their various homes and are leaving peaceful with one another