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At Ambassador Njiwah Burial, Angry Former Speaker Diah, Kataps attack Government


·       Says Late Traditional Ruler Frustrated to death

·       Faults Appointment of Replacement before Burial

 

Controversy has ensued over statements and political tantrums displayed at the funeral ceremony of the Paramount Leader and the first Mbondua Mbamnga Chiefdom Ambassador Emmanuel Quiltomi Njiwah, with his close associates accusing government of frustrating the late monarch to death.

Taking turns to express their displeasure, a former Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly Hon Abel Peter Diah and former Vice Chairman North East of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Chief GT Kataps expressed anger over the appointment of a new traditional ruler for the Chiefdom while the late Mbondua was yet to be laid to rest.

 

Speaking at the funeral service which took place at the 1st MBCN Church Gembu, the duo who were feasibly angry lamented the traditional ruler was relegated by the government he worked hard to put in power.

The former Speaker  who spoke in English and local dialect lamented that many of those writing tributes and sweet words after the death of the late traditional ruler, fought and frustrated him from 2019 till he died. 

"Chiefdoms where created   everywhere in Taraba State and government intention was to revive people culture and tradition, every other area is quite, the question I want to pose is why Sardauna Local government, is our chief different from other Chiefs.

"From 2019 till date our people had not have rest. Despite the fact that we are the one that voted massively for this government and party but our people are at the receiving ends. We will ask questions. If something is wrong normal, we will ask questions.

"Where has it ever happened we lost the Mbondua of Kabri, government was patient until after his burial before another one was appointed, we lost this great man, he was not only the Mbondua, he was the Supreme Leader of Mambilla People, they couldn't even honor him, while we were mourning him, his body was still lying in state, they appointed another Mbondua and we shouldn't talk? Why are we not going to talk, we will ask questions

"That's why people are saying there is something more into this than ordinary, how can you have two chiefs at a time.  This is sad, a very strong division has been created here and our people most resist it.

 

The former Speaker also accused the government of sponsoring disunity among the Mambilla people , challenging anyone fighting him to initiate a recall process on him to test his popularity among his people who elected him.     

 "Nobody will decide who will lead our people, we have a tradition. This is sacrilege our tradition has been tempered with we will not keep quite. We will speak because we have tradition. This is not happening anywhere why here?     

"I have to be this angry because the seed of hatred and discord has been sown on this land, I know between 2014 and 2015 election, Mbondua spent eight months in Abuja and he was the financing his hotel bills to ensure this government came to power, yet this government treated him with disdain. This same Mbondua was misrepresented before the government; he was misrepresented before his own people.  We are angry and God will revenge this for us.

"If you are fighting me, I represent the people, if you are fighting David Fouh, he's an elected person you know what to do. If you are fighting GT, he has left the job for you."

The former speaker said they will follow all lawful process till the end to ensure the appointment of the new Mbondua does not stand stressing that "if this is another ploy to silence us I think this is the being, it's now we will speak. Nobody is going to be silence again because we don't know who is going to be their next victim."

On his part the Ngwii of Mambilla, Chief  GT Kataps stress that they won't allow legacies of the late traditional ruler be rubbished with inappropriate actions of some people in power.  

"During the time we were receiving guests in Jalingo, you will noticed I refrain from making comments, as you said we should not fight, yes we will not fight. We won't be drag into the mud like pigs.

"Let me say this as a citizen of Mambilla and I come from a ruling house, in the whole of this Chiefdom only three people knew how this Chiefdom was birthed apart from the Governor, the Late Mbondua , my younger brother Abel and myself. When the late Mbondua died, in less than three hours, some people went on social media and were celebrating and they were people from Mambilla. We will not work on rumor but we pray that it was Gods will that he called him home on the 17th of January. When he was to be appointed Mbondua, he rejected it but it took us three hours to convince him to be the founding father of this Chiefdom because nobody had his pedigree and resume, let see how they are going to fill his position and they say we should not fight. We have relegated him; we killed him and now he's gone. You celebrated the death of our ruler and you say we should not fight.

"This is the fight the late Mbondua fought even when he was in the University, if everything is done according to the law we will not fight but anything done to rubbish his legacies we will not allow it."

 

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