PROTESTS AS SEYAWA CHIEFDOM IS CREATED BY BAUCHI ASSEMBLY

The Bauchi State House of Assembly yesterday unanimously passed a bill for the creation of Seyawa Chiefdom in the state.

The agitation for the Seywa Chiefodm by the Seyawa ethnic group in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Governemnt Areas which had been dodged by successive adminsitrations since creation of the state in 1976 had been on for a long time resulting in some of the worst sectrarian crises in the state with the bloodiest occuring in 1991.

Seyawa peole are currently politically under Bauchi Emirate Council headed by the Emir of Bauchi.

But the people had long been agitating to be independent and many governors including the incumbent often in their campaign promises always assured the people of the chiefdom only to dash their hopes until the recent passage of the bill by the state Assemly

The passage of the bill followed the adoption of the report of the House ad-hoc committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Saleh Abubakar Dumba as chairman.

The eight-man ad-hoc committee which was set up by the House last Tuesday was mandated to scrutise and exhaustively discuss on the provisions of the bill with a view to make amendments where necessary.

Presenting the report of the committee, its Chairman, Saleh Dumba said members made wide consultations considering the nature of the bill for the effective discharge of the assignment.

According to the committee report, the bill was intended to promote and foster greater harmony and peaceful co-existence among the diverse ethnic in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro Local Government areas of the state.

It said, however, that where a tribal chief was to be appointed within a given area and where other tribes co-exist within that given area, consent of other tribes must be sought and obtained.

The House okayed the permanent headquarters of the Sayawa new chiefdom at Marten Giji but said the headquarters should temporarily be placed at Bogoro to provide for access road and a palace befitting for the would be appointed chief at Marten Giji.

The report said to foster unity and harmony, other tribes that co-exist within the delineated areas be given similar status, and spelt out the need for their heads to be made chiefs in their own right.

The committee further said components local government councils should always take care the salaries and wages of emirates and chiefdoms.

The report similarly stated that districts and village areas created in any given local government must not pull out more than 4 per cent of the amount budgeted for salaries and wage.

The committee report on the creation of Sayawa Chiefdom also reminded the executive arm of government about the House letter on agitation for the creation of additional chiefdoms in the state especially in Bauchi and Misau emirates.

Daily Sun learnt that the siting of the headquartres at Marten Giji had become a bone of contention as the Seyawa people had outrightly rejected it, insisting it should be sited instead at Tafawa Balewa, the local government headquarters.

The Chairman and Secretary of the Sayawa Council of Elders and Traditional Rulers Baba Garba Vurmi and Honorable Barrister Bukata Zhyadi in a staement said:

'The site of the temporary headquarters of the Sayawa Chiefdom at Martin Giji, instead of its permanent site at Tafawa Balewa, the ancestral home town of the Sayawa nation, without due consultation of authority, approval, notification and or consent is hereby expressly totally rejected and refused, same amounting to an imposition, insult, abuse of democratic principles and above all, testing our will, capability, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge and total digression from truth'

According to the statement, it is also contrary to the submission and communiqué of the peace declaration and memorandum of understanding committee and high powered committee on the review of reports of Hon. Justice Babalakin, Shehu Awak and Hon. Justice Bala Umar commissions/committees on the Tafawa Balewa civil disturbances; that all agreed unanimously that Sayawa chiefdom be created immediately in Tafawa Balewa town as lasting solution to the perennial crises in both Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro LGA in accordance with the wishes and aspiration of the people'.

The statement explained that, 'Tafawa Balewa is our ancestral home town and any move, action, step by anybody to disconnect, divorce, impose and deny us to site the headquarters of our chiefdom at Tafawa Balewa town, will be vehemently and totally rejected and refused and can only be done so over our last drop of blood, which is not in our agenda'.