Senator Solomon Ewuga (Nasarawa North) recently led some select journalists for an on-the-spot assessment of the security situation in Alakyo village - scene of the May 7 killing of 56 security personnel sent to arrest the chief priest of the Eggon ethnic group’s deity, Ombatse, Ala Agu. EDEGBE ODEMWINGIE was in Alakyo and spoke to Senator Solomon Ewuga , who gives his version of the sad event as well as the revelation that Nassarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura promised to serve only one term in office.
You recently visited the troubled Alakyo village. What was the import of the visit?
The import of this trip is to bring the situation within the purview of national discourse as it relates to the senseless death of policemen and other members of the security operatives. I believe that even though I am not the Senator that geographically represents that district; the people in question are my tribesmen. I have received so many calls. There have been questions and discussions I have heard around my people.
I campaigned for this leadership (Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura) across the state and since it concerns a community that I directly relate with, it will be good for me to also pay a visit to the locals to establish things for myself. I think the essence of bringing the situation into national focus more than any other thing, is why it is required we go there.
As a politician, there are insinuations that whatever happened is connected to 2015. The gist is that Eggons want to take over the leadership of the state. This many say is the genesis of the crisis?
Strange talk! This very people are my tribesmen. They must have a reason for wanting to take over the leadership. Do you produce leadership with blood in your hand? Do you produce leadership without recourse to democratic process or do you produce leadership without reference to the established order?
These are the very people who have voted consistently in every election to support or remove one government or the other. The present government (Al-Makura’s) is a beneficiary of their votes and not their violence, so you will want to find what is the basis for that kind of transformation?
At this time, I don’t know of any Eggon person in the new party formation or Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) that is looking for governorship as we are talking. Will they be looking for leadership in vacuum? I think there must be a basis, unless you have more than what I know.
Now who do you think may be responsible for this attack against Eggons?
Part of the reasons was why you are here to establish the fact. A few days ago, Voice of America (VOA) visited me in the office and made same kind of inference that people said, and I said I don’t answer questions like that unless he tells me who said so, and he said people from the government circles in Nasarawa State.
I told him it is my legitimate right to seek for leadership. I have always sort for political office whether or not I made it is a different matter. In 1998 with the PDP, I had to compromise after the first step. In 2007, I won the election. When they did the PDP primaries in 2006 and there was no clear cut winner, the last governor was imposed. I left for ANPP and won but was thrown in detention for one week and he was declared winner.
We brought together ourselves and threw him out. I campaigned across the state not only in my Senatorial district, I wasn’t looking for governorship and the Eggon people voted massively which the governor himself acknowledged. Can I be denied my constitutional right if I want to seek for governorship?
I have not even started; I am just ten months in the Senate. The governor told me he wanted to come back and I reminded him of his promise to do just one term, but he asked me if we had an agreement he was going to hand over to me and I said no but that he promised the people of the state one term during and even after he was sworn in as governor.
So what are you (Al-Makura) telling me now that you want to come back? So what is more frank to this kind of discussion to allude whether or not am going to vie? My attitude is that it is my constitutional right. But I have not even gone to that level yet so I can’t understand this.
Some say you condemned the killings of security personnel in Nasarawa State but that you did not condemn Ombatse – the group alleged to have killed them?
I am an Eggon person but I don’t belong to Ombatse. I don’t know them. I started politics in 1982 and I became the publicity secretary of NPN, I didn’t need Ombatse. I was the National Auditor of UNCP. I contested for governorship in UNCP, I didn’t need Ombatse. 1998 primaries, everyone knew who won, I didn’t need Ombatse, in 2007 they were not even in existence, I won and was even thrown in detention. 2011, I didn’t stand for governor but supported the present administration.
So at what point do you begin to demonise a person who campaigned all through the state for someone’s candidature? These are some of the things we must bring into focus. But I must say that the attitude of presumed disposition to Eggon people put some question to their sense of equity.
In 1998 after the primaries, the party approached me that if I don’t become deputy to the then Abdullahi Adamu, we will lose election, I conceded as a matter of protocol not that I agreed, and we won and the first decision of Adamu led government was that everybody should return to his local government of original indigeneship.
The Eggon people were massively displaced and pushed into one local government, some of them went to court, up to Supreme Court and they won but they have not been put into their position up to today as am talking to you. Is it any sense of equity for people who support the government continuously? So if people rise for their own interest, you brand them so that you can hang them?
The same people who helped you? The next thing I did was advice him (Al-Makura)? Yes, I gave him several advice on how to go about it. I told him to get someone who he thinks he trusts to talk to them, we can help on the background so that he can understand their psychology since you think am Eggon and they may be influenced, nobody came back to me. We gave names of boys who we felt are miscreants who are taken advantage for certain situations, till date they haven’t been arrested.
When this mishap took place, I was in Port-Harcourt working for the party, the first person to call me was the DG SSS on Wednesday morning, regretting the sad loss of his boys, I felt very sad. This operation was carried out in the night, why will you take such operation in the evening? That is my question.
Twelve trucks to go and carry this old man? I have met him twice, if you put him in a crowd, I will not recognise him, today is the closest I will have to talk to him with this level of closeness. The original talk was that the man was dispensing concoction to people and is undermining other Eggon people who didn’t want to join. They also said they suspect there were guns and they were going to retrieve those guns but now the common saying is that there were political undertones, which one will you take?
I condemn the whole thing because it is despicable. My father was a soldier, my uncle Mr. Anga retired as a police commissioner 19 years ago and former acting governor of Enugu state. He went with us and other elders of our community to go and see. So when you have this kind of background, what do you think benefits me to want to support such act?
Interestingly, the Assistant Commissioner of Police who died in the operation, I was one of those that campaigned for his return, he was area commander in Akwanga.
When I went to condole with the Inspector General of Police on the incident, he said you pleaded with me to bring back Momoh, I said yes. So how can I orchestrate that kind of dastardly act, and you are saying I didn’t condemn the people who did it, what else do you want me to do, to go and bring back my dead father from the grave before you know that I don’t like it.
I think this head-splitting is what is causing this problem. It must be condemned in entirety. It is not for me to isolate one person or the other. My question is that how did they get to this poor state of handling the situation?
What do you think is the way forward to this situation?
This is a democratic set up, the community is not privy to the way you activate your interest in politics but don’t undermine them. It is the failure of the community that creates crisis and when you are in leadership, talk to them.
You come from a state, is that the way your governor is handling things in his State? You have leaders you can talk to, I don’t have any problem but if advice were given, don’t jettison community advice. This people voted for you. In politics, one vote counts. You don’t dispense with peoples’ sensitivity in the short term?
You were known to be close to the Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura, at what point did things fall apart?
I don’t know myself. I do my legislative work in Abuja and I am not involved in governance in Nasarawa State and if things have collapsed, you read it yourself. You are a journalist, you can find out yourself. Before coming to Alakyo, most of you even refused to come because of security threats, but did you witness anything like that while you were there? So the question is who is demonising who?
The president, Eggon Cultural Development Association (ECDA), Mr Chris Mamman said some people are demonising Eggon, what do you think is the implication to the Eggon race?
They are more organised. They have never found themselves in a situation where they have to close ranks with this volume of invectives being thrown at them. They never had course to close more ranks like what they are doing now. So there is functionality in crisis in the worst case scenario.
So how do you read it? Is it from the angle of the failure of settlement, or the functionality of value? These you have to weigh to create your own understanding of the scenario.
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