The indigenous tribes of Nasarawa State yesterday began a one-month protest across the state to counter the Peoples Democratic Partys (PDP) women who protested the re-election of Governor Abdullahi Sule. 

Less than 24 hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Sule the winner of the Nasarawa State governorship election, some women took to the streets calling for cancellation of the gubernatorial poll results.

But as a counter to the women’s protest, hundreds of indigenous people of the state yesterday thronged out in major streets of Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, and protested against the calls for the cancellation of the gubernatorial election.

The protesting indigenous people carried different placards with various inscriptions as: ‘Nasarawa State Mandate Is Not Stolen’; ‘Nasarawa State Does Not Belong to One Particular Tribe, But All of Us’; You Are Paid to Distract The Peace of Our Beloved State’, among others.

Speaking to journalists during the protest, the Chairman of Nasarawa Youth Awareness for Development Initiative, Ibrahim Abdullahi Hassan, said the indigenous tribes’ one-month protest would cover 13 local government areas of the state.

He said: “The Nasarawa State Youth Awareness for Development Initiative has reviewed activities since the declaration of the governorship election in which Governor Abduilahi Sule won, but the opposition PDP has directed its women supporters to protest in the streets of Lafia despite the ban on all forms of protest by the Nasarawa State Police Command.

Just last Saturday, these same women again were on the streets of Lafia protesting in order to cajole Muslims that are fasting to react thereby causing pandemonium.

“Therefore, our attention has been drawn to their acts, and we the indigenous tribes of Nasarawa State have decided to also commence our protest with effect from April 10, 2023, and will continue for one month. It will cover 13 local government areas of the state.”

Hassan, therefore, maintained that the indigenous tribes would never allow some non-indigenes to direct them on who the indigenous tribes should be dealing with.

THIS DAY