SMBLF decries plans to impose monarch on Tangale

Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) yesterday raised the alarm over alleged plot by the Gombe State Governor, Muhammad Yahaya, to impose a new Mai Tangale.

SMBLF asked President Muhammadu Buhari and relevant security agencies to hold Yahaya responsible should there be breakdown of law and order in the chiefdom.

The forum made the call in a statement signed by Yinka Odumakin (South West), Chief Guy Ikokwu (South East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South South) and Dr. Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt).

The leaders said the development was in line with a deliberate plot by the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy to impose an unpopular candidate on the people to disturb their peaceful co-existence along religious lines.

They lamented that Yahaya, who should champion peace, had turned out to be the mastermind of crisis.

“We are at a loss why the governor is not interested in announcing Dr. Musa Maiyamba as the new Mai Tangale, having polled five votes from a total of nine, leaving the two candidates for the exalted position with two votes each.

“It is reported that Governor Yahaya has vowed to choose a Muslim as the next Mai Tangale. Such action is capable of not only worsening the security situation, but could also serve as a prologue to havoc on the peaceful co-existence among the people. From the religious population of the town, it is most unlikely that the Biliri people, who are 95 per cent Christians, would succumb to the choice of accepting the successor to 14th Mai Tangale, Abdu Buba Maisheru, who was Chairman of the Northern Christians Traditional Rulers’ Forum,” the stated.

For the record, Christians constitute 95 per cent of Biliri population, they noted.

The statement added: “There is no doubt that out of the six chiefdoms in Tangale ethnic nationality, three are ruled by Muslims, who constitute less than 10 per cent, with Kaltungo having been turned into an emirate to bar Christians from aspiring to the Mai stool.
The other two chiefdoms with Muslim monarchs are Waja and Tula. In total, Muslims constitute less than 15 per cent in the entire six chiefdoms.

“Just recently, Governor Yahaya refused to appoint the state’s senior judge, Justice Beatrice Iliya, as the Chief Judge (CJ), on account of her faith. He refused to appoint a legal luminary, Mela Nunghe (SAN) as Commissioner of Justice and Attorney General on the simple reason of not sharing the same faith with him. To suppress the people and being them under Islamic dominance, he appointed a district head of Muslim faith to rule over Tudu Kwaya, an area comprising 75 per cent Christians.”