Wukari, Taraba State, In a grotesque escalation of Nigeria’s longest-running ethnic conflict, suspected Jukun militiamen exhumed and burned the corpse of 72-year-old Michael Usange hours after his burial, denying the retired educator his dying wish to rest in his ancestral homeland.
The June 28 burial procession to Chiina village was meant to fulfill the final request of Usange, who died in Benue State after six years as an internally displaced person. His crime? Being Tiv in a Jukun-dominated area.
Armed men stormed the fresh grave at dawn, dragging out the coffin and setting it ablaze before fleeing.
“They burnt our father like refuse,”
wept Joseph Usange, showing our correspondent the charred burial site.
The act represents a new low in the decades-old conflict, where even ancestral burial rights are now contested.
The Jukun-Tiv crisis embodies Nigeria’s most persistent ethnic fault lines:
Competing claims over Wukari’s fertile territories since colonial times
Tiv communities allege exclusion from Taraba’s power structures
Jukun’s “firstcomer” status vs Tiv’s centuries-long residency claims
The 2019 violence alone displaced over 200,000 Tiv people, with 240 villages abandoned. Usange’s family fled their home in Takum when militias torched it five years ago.
Despite multiple peace committees since the 1990s, including:
2001 Taraba Peace Pact
2020 NGF-mediated ceasefire
2023 UNHCR resettlement plan
…the state government has been accused of tacitly supporting Jukun militias. The Tiv Traditional Council claims security forces often arrive after attacks conclude.
This grave desecration exposes:
Collapsing Rule of Law: When vigilantes dictate burial rights
IDP Crisis: 83% of displaced Tiv refuse to return, fearing fresh violence
Cultural Genocide: Erasure of Tiv ancestral ties through land grabs
Governor Agbu Kefas’ office declined comment, but police spokesperson Usman Abdullahi promised “thorough investigation.”
4,200+ killed since 1991
600 villages destroyed since 2019
3 generations of displaced families
