A coalition of Tiv community leaders in Nasarawa State has accused the state government, led by Governor Abdullahi Sule, of orchestrating a deliberate plan to displace Tiv communities from their ancestral lands under the pretense of agricultural development.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Sunday, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Jerry Aondo alleged that government machinery—including the military, civil defence corps, and key ministries—were being used to forcibly evict Tiv residents and destroy their villages in local government areas such as Awe, Obi, Keana, and Doma.
According to Aondo, what the government has described as an agricultural expansion initiative is, in reality, an “ethnic cleansing agenda”;; targeting the Tiv population.
He listed affected communities including Udugh, Utsuwa, Usula, China, Chabo, Wachi, Tyungu, Uvirkaa, Ugba, and Ayarkeke, many of which, he claimed, have already been demolished or are marked for destruction.
“In Udugh village, bulldozers came with armed soldiers and civil defence personnel shortly after the governor visited on May 4,”;; Aondo said. “They flattened homes, schools, churches, and even graveyards. People had no choice but to flee their ancestral lands.”;;
He further alleged that women in Osula village were chased off their farmlands, leaving families without food or any means of survival.
“What is happening is not development; it is ethnic persecution carried out in the name of agriculture,”;; he added.
Despite growing concerns, Aondo said petitions sent to the Secretary to the State Government, the Commissioner of Police, and the Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly have so far gone unanswered.
As of press time, Nasarawa State government officials were yet to issue a formal response to the allegations.
