Taraba gov’t: Why we lost confidence in military

The Taraba State government has reiterated its position that it has lost confidence in the military because of its ‘discriminatory’ approach of the Operation Cat Race troops in disarming rampaging militia in the state.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor, Mr Bala Dan Abu, said: “The military is biased in favour of the militia that has been killing our people. They collect kitchen knives from law-abiding people in towns and villages but ignore the AK-47 rifles carrying militia in the forest to kill and burn down villages.”

Governor Darius Ishaku’s spokesman said contrary to the military’s allegation that there were no reports of wrong-doing about its officers in Taraba State, the government said since May last year, it had written eight letters to the military and presidency officials to lay specific complaints, without action.

The spokesman added that what a former defence minister, Theophilus Danjuma, said last week at the Taraba State University is not new, but a recap of the frustrations of the people of the state with the military. He added that peasants had been killed in several villages in Takum and Donga Local Government Areas of the state and the rampaging militia had occupied forests in those communities but the military had failed to dislodge them.