The Executive Governor of Taraba state, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku has done a lot to promote peace in Southern Taraba as the governor has visited the crisis areas at the Taraba/Benue borders more than SEVEN times since becoming governor during which he and his Benue State counterpart met and held meetings with leaders of the Tiv/Jukun communities on the need for peace.
It is obvious that one Benjamin Bako, a Jukun man who resides in Lagos and who has a very shallow knowledge of happenings in his home state of Taraba, is unrelenting in his one-man campaign of calumny against the office and person of His Excellency, Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku.
This was revealed in a press release signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity, BALA DAN ABU on April 14, 2020.
According to the press release, on Monday April 13, 2020, Benjamin Bako took his desperate campaign of hate against Ishaku to the media through a press statement in which he single-handedly passed a so-called vote of no confidence on Ishaku claiming that he was doing so under the umbrella of the Jukun Development Association of Nigeria. Nothing can be more nonsensical than such a move.
It states that Ishaku’s offence, according to him, is that he had failed to resolve the crisis between the Jukun and Tiv in the state. Benjamin Bakos thinking, understanding and interpretation of events in Taraba State, are so beclouded with his hate for the Governor that he has become blind and deaf to the good things that are happening to the state under the leadership of Gov Ishaku.
It reveals that on Monday, while Benjamin Bako was addressing the press to promote negative and unfair sentiments against Ishaku, a high-powered delegation of the Taraba State Government led by Deputy Governor Haruna Manu was on its way to Lafia, in Nasarawa State, for a meeting with its Benue State counterpart on the same crisis he was accusing the Governor of doing nothing about.
It reveals that the joint meeting of the delegations from both states took place on Tuesday April 14, 2020, in Lafia and the Taraba State delegation to that meeting was made up largely of the same Jukun elders whose consent he had forged in favour of his so-called vote of no confidence against Ishaku.
It again reveals that some prominent Jukun and other stakeholders in Taraba State presume that Benjamin Bako’s balderdash against Ishaku is better ignored.
We think so too but our fear is that a lot of people who may not be familiar with the level of ignorance and hate that informs his position on issues may be tempted to believe him. For this reason, we wish to state as follows:
It again reveals that the Deputy Governor of Taraba State also visited those areas many times at the instance of the governor and held similar meetings with Benue stakeholders led by the Deputy Governor of that state on the same subject.
It reveals that in September last year, another stakeholders meeting organized by Governor Ishaku was held at the Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja with senior Federal Government officials including Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National and State Assembly members from the two states in attendance. Key traditional rulers from Taraba and Benue states were also in attendance.
The press release states that today’s meeting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, is one in the series of efforts of Governor Ishaku to broker peace between the Jukun and Tiv.
It describes Benjamin Bako’s attacks as the height of ignorance and mischief for anyone to suggest that Governor Ishaku has not done enough to restore peace in Southern Taraba stressing that only a Benjamin Bako with a mind that is so profoundly intoxicated by hate can contemplate so.
It urged the Jukun nation and the entire people of Taraba to ignore and treat all that was contained in Benjamin Bako’s press statement as the vituperations of a frustrated man.