Tuesday, December 24, 2024 - Suspected hoodlums attacked the palace of Etsu Lokoja, HRH Emmanuel Akamisoko Dauda-Shelika, Nyamkpa IV, and burnt his vehicle and properties within the premises.
The hoodlums attacked the palace which is located on plot 306, New
Layout, Lokoja, at about 1:00 am on Saturday, December 21, 2024.
According to Punch, the Nupe Natives of
Lokoja Development Union were planning to host the 2nd Edition of Nupe Natives
end of the year event, tagged: “Lokoja ’24 Nupe Cultural Fiesta”, on Dec. 21,
2024, before the incident occurred.
The event was, however, aborted due to the unfortunate attack, when many
Nupe natives from neighbouring states had started arriving on the eve of the
ceremony.
Narrating his ordeal to the publication who visited the scene on Monday,
the monarch said he narrowly escaped by scaling the fence.
“It was around 1 am at night that I had a big bang on my door and I woke
up to check through the window, wondering what could have happened,” he
said.
"Then, I suddenly saw wildfire coming out of my car as it had been
set ablaze by attackers. I knew it was an attack on the palace, and therefore I
could not come out because of fear of being attacked. So, I managed to come out
through the back door and scaled the fence to escape for my life.
“Thereafter, I came out to the road and realised that all my neighbours
in the community were on the ground trying hard to quench the fire, but
unfortunately the car was burnt, as well as other properties inside it."
Dauda-Shelika appealed to the government and security agencies to
investigate the cause of the attack and bring the perpetrators and their
sponsors to justice.
He, however, appealed to the Nupe natives in Lokoja, to avoid any form
of reprisal but continue to remain peaceful, and law-abiding and allow
government and security agencies to conduct thorough investigations on the
attack.
“We are appealing to His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, and
security agencies to please use their good offices to investigate this
unfortunate incident and bring to justice whoever is concerned whether directly
or indirectly,” he said.
“We also want the government to kindly visit our issues by recognising
and grading the stool of Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence before
colonisation. By officially recognising and grading the Etsu Lokoja stool, we
know everything will be laid to rest because that is the power of the
government.
"If the government remain silent and looks away, it leaves the door
open for this kind of thing to happen. And as a people, we will not want to see
such things continue to happen. I urge my people to remain as peaceful and
law-abiding as we have always been because this incident has drawn the
attention of the government to our issue,” Dauda-Sheika added.
He noted that the Executive Chairman of Lokoja LGA and his security
apparatus came for an on-the-spot assessment that Saturday morning as well as
the Police, DSS and NSCDC.
"The DPO, ‘A’ Division was also here with his men upon hearing the
incident to ascertain what actually happened. They all condemned the ugly
incident in strong terms. We have also been invited to the Police station and
we have written our statement
"Nupe people are law-abiding and we are not known for violence.
Nobody in Lokoja will classify Nupe people as violent and lawbreakers, no! We
like accommodating everyone. And that is why other tribes like marrying our
daughters.”
Speaking on the possible cause of the attack, Dauda-Sheika said, “I
think it has to be said as it should be said; Lokoja is traditionally Nupe and
we were planning to have the annual Nupe Cultural Fiesta that we had last year
"That was why we sent out letters of invitation to all the relevant
stakeholders including the media, and security agencies such as the Police,
NSCDC, and DSS, as well as extending invitations to all other ethnic groups in
Lokoja such as the Ebira, Yoruba, Oworo, Igala, Igbo communities to come and
celebrate with us and our culture.
"We also extended the invitation to Maigari of Lokoja being the
Chairman of Lokoja Local Government Traditional Council, to come and be the
Special Royal Father of the day. But to our amazement, rather than accepting
our invitation, the Maigari faulted it, and wrote back to us, saying, ‘Our
letter lacks royal courtesy’ because we didn’t include the Chairman, Lokoja
Traditional Council in our letter.
"The Maigari also went ahead in his letter to say that there is
nothing like ‘Etsu Lokoja’. So, we wonder how will you say there is no Etsu
Lokoja when we have existed even before the colonialists came, and we have our
own way of administering ourselves abinitio.
"We were the earlier settlers here, and it has always been Etsu
Lokoja before the colonialists came. In an attempt to set up their own thing,
the colonialists put together this arrangement, and today we have a Maigari.
But we have no problem with that at all because we have lived together
peacefully for many years”, he said.
He stressed that the government was aware of the efforts and structures
that the leadership of Nupe Natives in Lokoja had put in place to facilitate
the government’s recognition of the Etsu Lokoja stool, to be able to administer
themselves freely as an ethnic group.
"So, the aborted cultural fiesta was never a coronation ceremony as
it was being interpreted in some quarters, but a cultural celebration because
the issue of coronation is very mundane. The most important thing for us is the
installation of Etsu Lokoja which we did on January 23, 2024. We further did a
public reenactment of that installation again on July 27, 2024, on the mountain
which was the root of Lokoja, and will send a letter of reminder to the
government on the need to recognize and grade Etsu stool.
"We also have a compendium of all our activities that we have done
which was also sent to the State Government as well as all the security
agencies. We are making sure as law-abiding people to follow principles and due
process because we are not violent but very intelligent and developers that add
value when we have the freedom to do so. The government has identified Lokoja
as a Cosmopolitan city and that is why they have chosen to identify, recognize
and grade certain ethnic groups including the Ohi Anebira of Lokoja, Onu Igala
of Lokoja, Oba Yoruba of Lokoja, Maigari Lokoja for Housa, as well as Etsu
Lokoja.
“So, the Nupe people deserve to be recognised and have a graded stool of
Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence long before the colonialists came. This
is to ensure fairness, equity and justice so that we can always have confidence
in the actions of the government, and we want to always participate in the
development of the land.
“We are not happy that we are sidetracked; we want to be part of the
players because we were one of the early settlers but we are not in the scheme
of things. We want to be included because we do not have another home, Lokoja
is our home and we have nowhere to go like others. What happens to our children
and unborn generations if we refuse to get things right now,” Dauda-Shelika
said.
0 Comments