Boys’ Brigade carrying the coffin of Gambo, their slain member to the burial ground
Joshua Gambo Alani, the Jukun man killed by unknown Tiv men last week in Abinsi, the restive Jukun community of Guma Local Government Area in Benue State, has been buried Tuesday.
It was somber atmosphere in the fishing community as the body of the slain 31-year-old man was lowered in community cemetery.
The Boys’ Brigade of the Christ Reformed Church of Nigeria (CRCN), where late Joshua was a Warrant Officer, served as pall bearers.
Gambo’s burial poster
Apex News gathered from sources in the village that late Joshua was to get married in December this year and was liaising with the CRCN leadership for a suitable date.
A commercial motorcyclist, Gambo as he was popularly called, was killed by gun-wielding Tiv men last Thursday at about 8pm, who fired on unsuspecting Jukuns at a popular spot where passengers are dropped at a taken into the inner village by commercial motorcyclists.
One of the shot hit Gambo, who died instantly while many other Jukuns injured.
The attack agitated Jukun youths who were restraint from a reprisal attack. However, Jukun youths carried the corpse of Gambo to the police station as an alibi as they are said to be often accused of causing trouble in the community against the Tiv people.
In January this year, some Tiv youths burnt some houses belonging to Jukuns following an argument in a drinking bar that did not warrant any serious attack.
Gambo’s Final resting place
It was gathered that some Tivs were having some disagreements and a Jukun, who tried to intervene was rebuffed and things turned against him.
Abinsi has been plagued with many crises in the past with the major on October 2, 1995, when a retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Asebia Agah, was killed by the Tivs.
It led to a prolonged communal strife leading to deaths on both sides. Thereafter, the then Military Administrator, Joshua Obademi instituted a Kangaroo commission of inquiry. Implemented the “indicated” section of the then Ward Head, Captain Clement Abayilo (rtd), was deposed where he later died. He refused to implement the section where the commission said the Jukuns should be given their Chiefdom as their culture and traditional are different from those of the Tivs.
Only recently, the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom constituted a panel of inquiry with Justice Wilfred Kpochi as chairman into the Jukun/Tiv crises in communities in the state.
Gambo: Last salute to the BB Warrant Officer
A Jukun elder told Apex News on phone that there are systematic plans by the Tiv people to “remove” the Jukuns from Abinsi and other parts of Benue State and thus want to unsettle the people.
According to him, the Jukuns were first settlers in the Benue valley for hundreds of years before the Tivs migrated from Congo area to join them and wondered why they refused to recognize the Jukuns are owners of the area.
He also frowned at the non inclusion of Jukun as one of the ethnic groups in Benue State putting them under the Tiv people.
Last year, the highest Tiv decision-making assembly, the Ijirtamen, in item 19, section vii, of its decisions suggested the renaming of all towns, villages or wards in Tivland with Tiv names.
They include Katsina-Ala, Wailomayo, Wadata, Yelewatta and Abinsi among others.
