Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar;
Police in Taraba State have verbally expressed that 15 people were killed while 2,130 were displaced in the two-day inter-tribal conflict that pitted the Jukun and Hausa communities in Wukari and Ibi local regime areas of the state.
Conversely, more than 1,565 houses, four filling stations and five churches were burnt in the two-day mayhem.
Withal, the acting Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, has given a marching order to the local ascendant entities in the affected areas to maintain placidity or face the music.
Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Joseph Kwaji, who verbalized with newsmen on the crisis in Jalingo on Monday, verbalized that four shops, eight conveyances and three mosques were additionally razed down.
Kwaji, while giving a breakdown of the casualties, verbally expressed that the worse hit was in neighbouring local regime area of Ibi where 11 persons were killed, 21 injured, 167 houses burnt and four churches consummately burnt down.
Kwaji verbalized that the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 3, Yola, Mohammed Abubakar, had carried out an on-the-spot assessment of the affected areas, describing the incident as hapless.
Kwaji verbalized the team took its time to visit the two traditional rulers in Wukari and Ibi council areas and held discussions with them on the way out of the crisis.
He verbalized that more security operatives had been drafted to the warring areas to maintain placidity and injuctively authorize, stressing that the visit by top police officers in the state and zone, no doubt, had reduced tension that enveloped the area in the past three days.
He verbally expressed shortly after discussion with the two royal fathers in their palaces and domains in Ibi and Wukari local regime areas on Monday, the AIG further addressed youths in the area to lay down their arms in the interest of placidity and development.
Kwaji verbally expressed the AIG further reminded the youths on the desideratum to abide one another, assuring them of police readiness to bulwark their lives and properties.
Wukari and Ibi local regime councils have remained a ghost of itself as motorists and residents are diligent relocating from those areas to safer places.
Meanwhile, Umar has directed local regime chairmen to be security conscious and ascertain that there was no breakdown of law and injuctively authorize in their respective areas.
Umar gave the directive on Monday in Jalingo, shortly after an extensive security council meeting with both the traditional rulers and the council chairmen.
Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting that was held behind closed door, the acting governor further directed the council chairmen to ascertain that traditional rulers in their respective areas were carried along in the fight against insecurity in the state.
He authoritatively mandated the local ascendant entities to hold monthly security meeting in order to address grey areas for timely intervention.
Umar stressed the consequentiality of traditional rulers in tackling security challenge, verbalizing they could not be ignored. He therefore directed that the royal fathers must be a component of distribution of palliation materials to displaced persons.
Hundreds of lives have been lost in communal strife in southern Taraba councils of Wukari and Ibi in the past three months between the Tiv/Fulani on one hand and the Jukun/Hausa community on the other. Properties worth millions of naira have additionally been lost in the crises.
