CONTROVERSY OVER NEW PONZHI TAROH

As Plateau State government gets ready to install a new paramount ruler for the Taroh, the Ponzhi Taroh, the Gazum people of Tarohland have advised the state government against precluding them from the selection process.

The national president of the Gazum Cultural, Economic and Social Development Association, Mr. Clement Chirman said at a news conference yesterday that the state government has made it clear that the next Pozhi Taroh would be selected outside Gazum because it is relying on a document submitted to it by the Taroh traditional council on February 9, 2009.

But Chirman said such would amount to validating a draft document over and above a gazette, which is the recognized piece of legislation as a far as the stool is concerned.

He said a 1975 gazette, which remains the subsisting law on the stool of the Ponzhi Taroh, provides that both the 'Ce' people of Langatng and the 'Lagan' of Gazum can contest for the stool.

Chirman argued that it was the position of the state government that there should be no chiefdom within a chiefdom and that is why it has failed to create a chiefdom for the Anaguta and the Jarawa as well as the Hausa people in Jos North Local Government Area of the state, saying that of Taroh land should not be different.