Idoma youths blow hot as organizers keep mum, refuse to call off planned coronation of Bala Muhammad as Sardauna Otukpo

The Coalition of Otukpo Youths (COY), a civil society organisation, has frowned at the refusal of the Hausa community in the area to officially call off the planned installation of Bala Muhammad as Sardauna Otukpo.

IDOMA VOICE reports that an invitation card had cropped up social media last week, inviting the general public to the coronation of Alhaji Bala Bello Muhammad as Sardauna Otukpo.

The development irked many Idoma natives, who in strong terms kicked against the planned coronation.

Relatively, the Deputy Governor of Benue State, Engr. Benson Abounu, in a statement had claimed he contacted the organizers to inform them that such title was anathema to the Benue State chieftaincy law of 2016.

However, one week after, the organizers are yet to make any public statement calling off the event, the loud silence, the Otukpo youth group believes is a ploy to infiltrate our ancestral home with a subtle jihad.

Adole Ekedegwa K’ome, Secretary Coalition of Otukpo Youths, in a statement vowed that Idoma youths will meet hesitate to any such attempt to hold the event with stiff resistance.

The statement reads below.

The attention of the Coalition of Otukpo Youths (COY), has been drawn to a circulated invitation by one Alhaji Bala Bello Muhammad regarding his coronation as the Sardauna Otukpo.

As nebulous as the phantom rise to chiefdom of the alias bearing self acclaimed Sardauna may be, the deafening silence of Sarkin Hausawa Alhaji Mallam Mamuda over the proposed installation leaves much to be desired.

For over a week, we have waited patiently with our ears to the ground to hear a statement from Alhaji Mallam dissociating himself from the said coronation but to our surprise, the leader of the Hausa community has kept mum.

We are therefore compelled to believe that he is complicit, (if not the sole mastermind) in the ploy to infiltrate our ancestral home with a subtle jihad.

No sane mind will initiate such a nefarious agenda at this time where anything of such has become suspicious owing to the different attempt at land grabbing by the northern oligarchy.

We make bold to dare Alhaji Mallam who we believe has initiated this draconian move to try this in Kano where he came from, he (Mamuda) might not live to tell the story owing to the intolerance of the government of Kano to her traditional institution.

We shall not in any way behave like our youth counterparts in the core North who would, at the slightest provocation, call for the ejection of persons concerned; but we suggest that if Alhaji Mallam can still trace his roots, he will make a good Sardauna Kano himself.

We wish to advise Alhaji Mallam Mamuda to, as a matter of urgency, desist and refrain from any act that will jeopardise the unmerited peace he has enjoyed in Otukpo.

He (Mamuda) may wish to try other methods at extorting the young man (Hajj B) of his PPMC money. We are aware that as a contractor who does not have good records of completion of work coupled with the hardship of the current regime, times are hard.

We the Coalition of Otukpo Youths shall not hesitate to meet any such attempt with stiff resistance. We are pleased to tell the proponents that even if the plan is as little as a fly, we shall not attack it with a machine gun but with a nuclear weapon.

To be fore warned is to be fore armed.

The leader of Hausawa in Otukpo having passed by (not through)a Polytechnic should have been literate enough to detach his office from such a deliberate slap on the face of the Otukpo people. Even if he couldn’t write, he should have used one of his Islamiya trained children to pen some words that will kindle an ember of trust.

While the Otukpo traditional council, the Ojuju K’Otukpo and the state government is doing the best they can, we the youths vehemently warn against any action that will frustrate the peace that we all enjoy in Otukpo.

We wish to use this medium to appreciate all those who have lent their voices in this regard.

While we shall continue to work assiduously to maintain and promote peace in our land, we shall not forget what our fathers told us; “when leprosy is still just a spot, you meet it with fire”.