How I survived the Tiv, Fulani violence in Taraba -Father Lamma

Father for how long have you been working in the Lord’s vineyard?I was ordained a Catholic priest on 14th July 2007and my first appointment was Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chanchangi. After six months I was moved to St Joseph’s Parish Mayo Gwoi, Jalingo. Then I was made the priest in-charge of SS Peter and […]

Father for how long have you been working in the Lord’s vineyard?
I was ordained a Catholic priest on 14th July 2007and my first appointment was Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chanchangi. After six months I was moved to St Joseph’s Parish Mayo Gwoi, Jalingo. Then I was made the priest in-charge of SS Peter and Paul pastoral area, Orga. We had been a pastoral area since 2009 until last year on Pentecost Sunday when the Bishop upgraded it to a parish. From 2013 up till now we are supposed to be one year as a parish but before Pentecost, already crisis was on ground.
What type of crisis?
I cannot exactly tell what kind of crisis we were enmeshed in. On the surface it appeared it was a tribal war between Fulani and Tiv, but deeply, it was a religious crisis. At first the Fulani wanted to chase away the Tiv from that place. It was clear that it was a crisis between the Fulani and the Tiv people but unfortunately, if the crisis was between these two ethnic groups why would it creep into the church destroying the churches and parish houses and everything that belongs to the church. As I am talking to you I am not a Tiv man yet they burnt my house because I was a priest there. If really it was something that had to do with just the two tribes they would have left the church and the parish house but since the church and the parish house were not spared, automatically we will say it is religious crisis.
To what extend were you affected, did some of your parishioners loss their lives?
Fortunately my people left the place earlier because the Fulani sent a message to them that they should leave that place if not they would come and finish them. So some of them out of fear ran but some still waited behind. Even myself, the last day I left that place was Easter, when I had my Easter with about 30 people, the whole parish with just about 30 people. So I left the day  after Easter Sunday. Usually, I take a short break after Easter and return on Saturday to celebrate mass on Sunday. So I had left for Jalingo for the break and to attend a diocesan official meeting of CMO with the intention of coming back on Saturday only to receive calls from the people that I shouldn’t come back that Fulani have taken over the place. The few that were left behind had to flee for their dear lives since they had nothing to protect themselves with. Thank God there was no casaulty at the moment in the whole of that parish.
If you were at the parish when the Fulani invaded and razed down the church and the parish house what would you have done?     
I wouldn’t have done anything but I had vowed that I wasn’t going to leave the parish, even if they were going to kill me. I am not a Tiv man, I am a Mumuye man and they were fighting Tiv people so why should I have ran away? But it was like God’s intervention because when my parishioners insisted that I should not come back then Bishop sent me to Nguroje to cover one priest for a month. It was on the 17th of April that they called me and told me that my house, the church, the school and the clinic were all burnt down by the Fulani invaders. So I left Nguroje on the 23rd of April and on the 25th of April I was there to see for myself the level of destruction. I first of all went to the police headquarters in Jalingo and told them what was happening in my place and they gave me four mobile policemen and we went to Orga to be certain that my parish was destroyed. We went round the ruins and there was nobody around. The only people we saw were Fulani grazing their cattle. Apart from them there was no single Tiv soul there. From there we went to Dinya, because the parish there was affected too. They started with Dinya, which was burnt on the 9th of April, and there were casualties. They came in a group and were singing and saying ‘pastor your own is finished today.’ But by divine providence, the Bishop had sent him to Gembu to cover somebody there and he was not around at the parish when the Fulani fighters came because they came purposely to kill him. When they came they entered into the parish house, looted the place and set it ablaze. Then they entered the town and luckily people were not plenty there and some ran away but those that were not aware could not run and they killed about four persons; two women and two men.  Overall, where some of my parishioners lost their lives was after the main incident when some of them would decide that ‘let me go and see if the place is calm.’ Three of them will go and only ‘two may return. Up till today, my catechist’s brother known as Dogo is missing and we have not even seen his corpse.
According what the brother told me, there was a group of his Fulani friends who came and asked him to buy chemicals so that they will help him spray his farm. He bought the chemicals and went to spray the farm and on their way back some people attacked him. Whether it was the same group of Fulani that lured him to the farm to kill him, nobody can exactly tell but the sad thing is Dogo’s corpse has not been found till today.
What is the situation on ground now, has normalcy returned and have you started rebuilding your parish?  
No, no, there is no normalcy in that area. Once you venture inside you cannot come back alive, that is what I can assure you.
So you are now like a shepherd whose sheep has been scattered?
Yes. But I would prefer to say a Parish priest without parishioners, a king without a crown. The situation is so bad and the only place you will find security is on the federal road. Ten metres away from the federal road you cannot go inside because the Fulani are always there and you cannot go inside and come back alive.
Even you as a priest?
As a priest I cannot go inside. I said nobody. Probably,as a muslim you can go inside the hinterlands.
Have you made efforts to let the state government understand the situation on ground?
I have not done that as an individual but the Catholic Diocese of Jalingo has done that—we have held press conferences and publicized the extent to which the crisis has affected the church in Unity News—the diocesan newspaper.  The diocese even went to the Acting Governor and spoke with him about the crisis but the situation has not changed. This is the worst crisis I have ever seen in Taraba state.
And perhaps your worst experience as a priest?
Yes, because as a priest I have not experienced something like this. No crisis has ever lasted this long, from April to November. No crisis has ever lasted more than one month in Taraba and we don’t understand what is happening now. It is unfortunate that the government is giving the impression that it has controlled the crisis when most of us are still running helter skelter as internally displaced persons. I have nowhere to lie my head and somebody is saying that he has overcome the crisis in Taraba state. They have even shown how some chiefs signed ceasefire agreement but in real sense the crisis is still on going. Just talk of Wukari and Gidin Dorowa, which was on fire last Monday; luckily soldiers were able to control it because it was on the highway. Is it the Ibi one, is it the Wukari one? All those fightings are still going on and somebody will tell you that he has controlled the crisis in Taraba.
At first the Acting Governor did not even agree that there was crisis in Taraba. According to him there was nothing happening in Taraba when everybody knew that the Tiv people were no longer in Taraba as a result of the crisis.
What advice do you have for the people and the state government in trying to enthrone peace in the state?  
My advice to the government is that it shouldn’t play politics with the crisis. It shouldn’t play politics with the lives of the people because life is sacrosanct. If you look at the whole thing it is as if politics is into what is happening today. If the government is sincere about what is happening, it should find a way of controlling it. I am not a politician but if you look at it very well it is clear that the government is playing politics with the crisis. Like me now I cannot vote because where am supposed to register and vote nobody is there. Automatically I cannot vote and all those Tiv people around wukari, Ibi, Gassol and Bali areas cannot vote because they could not do the new voters’ registration. And if you look at the whole population of those areas it is the Tiv people that are the majority in all the villages but if you go there now all the villages are empty. So is it the cows that are going to vote? If you really want to play politics who are those going to vote for you. So I am pleading with the Acting Governor to do everything possible to allow the displaced persons go back to their places so that they can vote him into office.
And for my people there is need for them to understand what is going on and do everything possible to safeguard their lives. Unfortunately, we do not have a say in who becomes the governor of Taraba because the vote which is our power has been denied us. But I am still advising that if they have the opportunity they should vote those that will protect them and bring development to them.