Tiv-Jukun Crisis:
Tiv-Jukun Crisis: Court Summons Taraba Gov, Security
Chiefs over Probe Panel
A federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Governor of Taraba
State, Darius Ishaku, a former Justice of the Supreme Court,
Justice Kumai Aka’ahs (Rtd) and heads of security agencies in the
country, to appear before in court in respect of the ethnic clashes
in Taraba State.
They are to appear before Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed on August
26, 2020 to show cause why they should not be restrained from
continuing with investigations into the Tiv/Jukun crisis in Taraba
State.
The judge made the order while ruling in an exparte application
seeking to stop the Commision of Inquiry into the crises between
Tiv and their neighbouring communities in Taraba State and Other
Related Matters, from proceedings further in its assignment over
alleged bias.
The applicants, the Incorporated Trustees of Mzough U Tiv and
five others had dragged the respondents to court over the
constitution of the probe panel into the tribal clashes in Taraba
State.
Other applicants are; President General, Mzough U Tiv and Rtd
CP, Mr Ihiagh Iorbee, Hon. David Uchiv, Hon. Jacob Gbagede, Hon.
Julius Kwaghkar and Dr Yakubu Agbidye.
In the exparte motion filed and argued on their behalf by their
lawyers led by Chief Sebastine Hon, SAN, the applicants who sued on
behalf of themselves and the Tiv people, including those of Taraba
State, prayed the court for an interim injunction restraining the
4th to 12th respondents (chairman, members, secretary and counsel
of the panel) from, “taking any further step pursuant to the
instrument constituting them as such Commission of Inquiry, pending
the determination of the Motion on Notice for Interlocutory
Injunction”.
They also prayed the court for another interim injunction
restraining the 13th to 19th respondents; Chiefs of Defence, Army,
Air and Naval Staffs; IG; DG, DSS; Commandant, NSCDC, “from
continuing to aid and abet the forceful removal of the applicants
and their tribesmen from their ancestral homes and other places of
residence in Taraba State, pending the determination of the Motion
on Notice for Interlocutory Injunction”.
The exparte which was predicated on 11 grounds accused the
governor of “showing open hatred for the Tiv tribe in Taraba” and
using his office in collaboration with the security chiefs, “to
forcefully/genocidally evict Tiv tribesmen from Taraba State”.
They argued that the governor profiled the Tiv tribe and
isolated them for adversity, when it failed to mention the other
“Communities” in the instrument setting up the Commission of
Inquiry into the Crises “between the Tiv and their Neighbouring
Communities”.
While the applicants also accused the panel of profiling the Tiv
tribe, they noted that by its composition the panel is likely to
breach the fundamental right of fair hearing of the applicants.
They urged the court to intervene as the panel which has only
three months to sit and submit its report to the governor was
expected to commence sitting on August 17, adding that the security
chiefs till date are “aiding and abetting the governor in the
genocidal eviction of the applicants’ Tiv tribesmen from Taraba
State, unless restrained by this court”
In addition, they claimed that unless the application is
granted, their fundamental rights and that of their tribesmen will
continue to be breached unabated.
Delivering ruling in the exparte, Justice Mohammed however, made
an order directing all respondents in the suit to appear before him
on August 26 and show cause why the interim injunction order as
prayed by the applicants should not be granted.
The judge further ordered that court processes and hearing
notices be served on all the respondents and adjourned till August
26 for hearing.
In the main suit with number: FHC/ABJ/CS/955/2020, the
plaintiffs want the court to declare that the setting up of panel
amounts to a flagrant breach of their fundamental rights as well as
their tribesmen.
While they claimed that the panel as presently constituted would
breach their right to fair hearing, they prayed the court for an
order quashing the said instrument setting up the panel as well as
the public invitation by the panel that interested person’s submit
memoranda to them, as being vague, unconstitutional, null and
void.
They also prayed for an order of perpetual injunction
restraining the 1st to 3rd respondents (Ishaku, Taraba State
Government and Attorney General (AG), “from receiving and or acting
on any report / resolutions of the 4th-12th respondents, arrived at
in the exercise of the powers conferred on them by the instrument
setting up the 4th respondent”.
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the 13th-19th
respondents, either by themselves or through their officers and
men, from aiding and abetting or continuing to aid and abet the
discriminatory policies of the 1st and 2nd respondents against the
applicants/ Tiv tribe in Taraba State” and ” such other orders as
this court may seem fit to make in the circumstances”.