Apparently reacting to the recent crisis that engulfed Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi state, the Council of Elders and Traditional Rulers Forum from the council area and Bogoro Local Government have debunked the claim on the number of casualty recorded, saying that 35 people were brutally killed.

Addressing newsmen in Jos, the National Secretary of the Forum, Mr Dam Manah,  debunked the claim that the crisis was as a result of a fraca between two youths over a game of snooker and stated that the violence that followed the disagreement was unimaginable.

According to him, the violence escalated with more shooting and burning of houses, adding that at the end Sayawa houses, shops and churches in Tafawa Balewa and Arewa  were burnt, while 15 people were killed and another 20 waylaid and killed at Zwall while travelling from Bauchi to Tafawa Balewa.

The Council of Elders and Traditional Rulers Forum blamed the Bauchi State government for the repeated conflicts based on its refusal to actualise the Chiefdoms.

It noted the setting up of a reconciliation committee on peace and reconciliation by the state government adding that the committee at its deliberations recognized the non-actualization of the Sayawa Chiefdom and their fears on the voter registration as factor for the angry actions.

The Forum chided the Bauchi State government for the sudden transferred of all the students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Tafawa Balewa, to the Government Girls Secondary School, Yana, in Northern Bauchi State because of their safety.

“Predictably, the non-Muslims students refused to be transferred and they were abandoned to their fate in the school, while taken away with them all food items for their feeding.

“If the government cannot guarantee the safety of Muslims students in a predominant christian community, how can the same government convince parents of the non-Muslim students that their lives are guaranteed in a predominantly  Muslim community? “
The forum, therefore, called on the Bauchi State government  to stop the relocation of students.

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