From Godwin Agia, in Jalingo
It is no longer news that the decision by Governor Agbu Kefas to install a Chamba man as the first class chief of Takum to abolish the age long ‘Ukwe Takum’s traditional Council in Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State has generated serious concerns and tension within and outside the state.
Our correspondent gathered that a fresh tension is brewing following recent alleged utterances by some Chamba elites that the Chambas having two first class traditional stools in Taraba and are gradually taking over the Kwararafa Chiefdom from the Jukuns who are having only one first class ruler in the State.
According to our sources, the Chamba leaders allegedly made the comments recently at Ganye, Adamawa State, during a meeting with Chamba youth Association.
During the said meeting, the Chamba elders allegedly boasted that with General T Y Danjuma, their kinsman, the Chamba ethnic group is capable of displacing any existing traditional institution to their advantage.
It was gathered that these statements by the Chamba elders, did not go down well with prominent Jukun elders in Wukari and Takum who allegedly blamed Governor Kefas for imposing the Chamba tribe as first class chief of Takum to please General Danjuma.
Reacting on the matter, a Jukun elder from Takum, Mr Abraham Tsokwa, who spoke with a group of Journalists in Jalingo on Sunday, expressed dissatisfaction with the measures adopted by governor Kefas in the name of “resolving the Takum age long Traditional Tussle.”
Tsokwa said history shows that the Chambas whose population are minute in Takum, migrated from Adamawa State and the Cameroon Republic to Taraba and were never part of the Kwararafa kingdom.
He blamed governor Kefas for dancing to the dictates of TY Danjuma, (a Chamba man) to distort the traditional history of Takum Chiefdom, without consulting the Jukun elders of Takum.
He applauded the immediate past governor Darius Ishaku, for resisting every pressure and threat from the retired Chamba army general to temper with the traditional history of the Takum people.
“Ishaku, knowing the implication of toying with history, acted wisely by not subjecting himself to pressure from TY Danjuma, after consulting with elders and considering the historical background surrounding the chieftaincy in Takum.” He said.
According to him, the traditional stool of Takum has been an exclusive right of the Kutebs which they have been occupying since time immemorial. “That is why the title is Ukwe Takum in Kuteb native language.”
He blamed Kefas for playing to the gallery by subverting the interest of the Jukun and transferring them to the Chambas who are already occupying a first class seat in Donga, second class in Dakka, third class seats in Chanchangi and Kashimbila in Takum Local Government and, Suntai Daji, Dakka and Kungana in Bali local government area as well as Nyankula and Rafinkada in Wukari local government.
He expressed bitterness that the Chambas who have an insignificant population in the state, are occupying two first class traditional institutions against the Jukuns with just the Aku Uka as the only first class traditional ruler.
He warned the Chamba people, particularly those within the elders brackets, to exercise restraints in their utterances so as not to create avoidable tension in the state.
“As we await the outcome of the matter at the Appeal court in Yola, I appeal to everyone to restrain from making unguarded utterances bearing in mind the histories of inter ethnic crisis in the locality which no one benefitted.” Tsokwa said.
It could be recalled that Gov. Kefas, few months after his assumption of office tinkered with the age-old Ukwe Takum chieftaincy institution as he installed a Chamba man as a first class chief with third class chief from the Jukun and Kuteb tribes under a rotational arrangement.
The aggrieved tribe is the Kuteb who did not buy into the purported “resolution of the Chieftaincy Tussle” of their respected and predictable mode of succession to the stool of the Ukwe Takum.
The Kuteb tribe swiftly challenged the state government’s decision at a Jalingo High Court and currently at the appeal court in Yola, maintaining that the stool of Ukwe Takum which has been in existence since the creation of Takum must be restored.
Our correspondent reliably gathered that recently a three man delegation consisting of a high court judge, a prominent traditional ruler and a renown private legal practitioner from the state were allegedly sent to Yola to influence the appeal number CA/YL/188/2024 filed by the Kuteb people pending before the court.
Aside from this, some Kuteb youths were also allegedly recruited and placed on a N250,000 each monthly allowances for them to feed the government with any information from the camp of the Kuteb on issues pertaining the struggle to reclaim the Ukwe stool.
