Junkun/Tiv crisis: Wukari varsity students, staff killed, kidnapped ...Benue evacuates 812 students .... Tiv calls for emergency state in Taraba

The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State, Prof. Abubakar Kundiri, yesterday closed down the institution indefinitely following the reported abduction and killings of some students and staff of the institution due to the Jukun/ Tiv ethnic crisis.

In a statement, the institution’s registrar, Magaji Gangumi, said: “The closure of the institution follows the protest by students over the kidnapping of their mates along the Wukari -Katsina Ala highway on Tuesday therefore students are directed to vacate the hostel and university premises by or before 12 noon.”

Kundiri assured that adequate security measures had been put in place to ensure the safety of staff and students as they vacated Wukari.

He said security had also been reinforced from both the army and police to ensure that members of academic community without any hitch.

Reports from Rafin Kada and Takum said many people lost their lives in a clash between Jukun and Tiv Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Benue State government yesterday evacuated 812 students from the Federal University in Wukari in Taraba State following the escalation of crisis between the Jukun and Tiv people in the institution’s vicinity.

The State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Dennis Ityavyar, told newsmen in Makurdi that the development forced the Benue government to send 15 buses including four luxurious vehicle with capacity of 60 passengers to the school to bring back home students of Benue state origin.

Ityavyar said adequate security personnel in four buses were also dispatched to escort the vehicles left Wukari accompanying the students back home to their various parents.

“We hear the militias were also outside the gate of the university. So, we have detachment of security involving soldiers of Operation Whirl Stroke to go there and bring the students to Benue. A total of 812 Benue students are involved,” he said.

He said the chairman of Ukum Local Government, a Benue area bordering Wukari, the university town, already sent six buses to the school to evacuate students to Jootar where his ministry delegation would pick them up.

Yesterday, President, Tiv Cultural Association in Taraba State, Goodman Dahida, urged Federal Government and the National Assembly to impose a state of emergency in the state in order to end the bloodshed resulting from ongoing four-month-old Tiv/ Jukun crisis.