Suspected hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons have allegedly attacked the palace of the Ter Tiv of Nasarawa State, Chief Patrick Nguepe, at Imon in Obi Local Government Area of the state.
Our correspondent gathered that the suspected hoodlums carried out the attack under the cover of a meeting of the Tiv Development Association.
President of TIDA, Moses Tarkumbur Utondo, told our correspondent in Lafia, the state capital, that he had received a formal report about the incident from the Ter Tiv.
Utondo, who is also the special adviser to Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura on public works, said, “I have received a formal report from the Ter Tiv that some hoodlums armed with sophisticated weapons invaded his house in the name of TIDA meeting and caused destruction, setting some houses ablaze.”
However, our correspondent learnt that the emergence of a new leadership for TIDA, led by Bernard Ikyeghna as a replacement for the Utondo-led exco at the Imon congress, led to the violence.
But in his reaction, Utondo dismissed the new leadership of TIDA, insisting that since there was no election for a new exco, he remained the president of the association.
“Any election of TIDA is based on the provisions of the constitution. Our tenure formally expired on May 25, 2017; there is a provision of three months grace within which the incumbent executive council would prepare election and hand over to the next council members, and we are still within the provision of the three months grace period, which expires by August 25, 2017. Moreover, we are in the process of conducting the election,” he said.
Ikyeghna stated that even the grand patron of TIDA, who is the Ter Tiv, who had the constitutional powers to dissolve the present exco, could not do so until the expiration of the three months grace.
“So, if there is anybody anywhere claiming that there was election anywhere, that election was not for the purpose of TIDA, because TIDA election did not take place anywhere,” he said.
But the legal adviser to the social cultural organization, Mr. Asongu, in his reaction, said that Utondo lacked moral or legal justification to seek the protection of the constitution because he was appointed and not elected.
”He was appointed in gross violation of the TIDA constitution,” Asongu insisted.
