By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
Trouble is brewing in Niger State between Gbagyi Elders Forum in Minna and the Minna Emirate Council over what the elders described as ‘‘the unilateral appointments of districts and village heads and the ongoing plans to turban the traditional rulers’’.
The Gbagyi Elders Forum has therefore appealed to the the state government to stop the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouq Bahago, from turbanning the newly appointed village and district heads to avoid trouble.
The group said that the appointments were “illegally done”.
The Elders also want Governor Abubakar Sani Bello to immediately begin the implementation of the White Paper on the report of an investigative panel set up by the administration to address disputes surrounding the appointments of such categories of traditional rulers.
Recall that the Emir of Minna, Umar Farouk Bahago, had appointed 30 districts and 188 village heads for the emirate alone which caused disaffection among the Princes and Princesses in the area forcing the government to stop their installations and as well setting up a committee to ‘look into the matter’.
However it was learnt that the Minna emirate had concluded plans to turban the disputed village and district heads early next year which the Gbagyi Elders Forum warned could lead to a breakdown of law and order in the emirate.
Addressing a news conference in Minna, the forum’s leaders, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, and a former Senior Special Assistant on Chieftaincy Affairs to former Governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, Alhaji Awaisu Giwa Wanna, Alhaji Abubakar M Bosso said they opposed the emirs action because of “its non-compliance with the procedures for appointments of district and village heads in accordance with the custom and tradition of Minna emirate”.
They also argued that the Emir of Minna failed to ‘reflect the interest through the representation of the five districts that make up Minna emirate in the headship of the new districts purportedly created in Minna’.
The forum, however, warned, “should the emir fail to accede to the yearnings and aspirations of the people to make the administration of Minna emirate more inclusive, we plead with the Governor to use his good offices to dissolve Minna emirate as presently constituted and allow the various chiefdoms the autonomy long denied them”.
All attempts to get the Emirates reaction to the development proved abortive as neither the Emir himself nor the Secretary of the Emirate could be reached for comments.
However, a senior emirate official who did not want to be quoted told our correspondent on Thursday, “I don’t think there is anything like that, they are being speculative. If there is going to be any turbanning I should know, the emirate will place announcements on radio and television”, he said before pleading for calm from the elders.
