Some suspected hoodlums on Saturday attacked the palace of Etsu Lokoja, HRH Emmanuel Akamisoko Dauda-Shelika, Nyamkpa IV, and burnt his vehicle and properties within the premises.

The palace which is located on plot 306, New Layout, Lokoja, was allegedly attacked by hoodlums at about 1:00 am on Saturday.

They burnt his vehicles while the monarch narrowly escaped by scaling the fence.

It was gathered that Nupe Natives of Lokoja Development Union were planning to host the 2nd Edition of Nupe Natives end of the year event, tagged: “Lokoja ’24 Nupe Cultural Fiesta”, on Dec. 21, 2024, before the incident occurred.

The event was, however, aborted due to the unfortunate attack, even when many Nupe natives from neighbouring states had arrived on the eve of the event.

Narrating his ordeal to our correspondent who visited the scene on Monday, the monarch said: “It was around 1 am at night that I had a big bang on my door and I woke up to check through the window, wondering what could have happened.

“Then, I suddenly saw wildfire coming out of my car as it had been set ablaze by attackers. I knew it was an attack on the palace, and therefore I could not come out because of fear of being attacked. So, I managed to come out through the back door and scaled the fence to escape for my life.

“Thereafter, I came out to the road and realised that all my neighbours in the community were on the ground trying hard to quench the fire, but unfortunately the car was burnt, as well as other properties inside it.”

Dauda-Shelika appealed to the government and security agencies to investigate the cause of the attack and bring the perpetrators and their sponsors to justice.

He, however, appealed to the Nupe natives in Lokoja, to avoid any form of reprisal but continue to remain peaceful, and law-abiding and allow government and security agencies to conduct thorough investigations on the attack.

“We are appealing to His Excellency, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, and security agencies to please use their good offices to investigate this unfortunate incident and bring to justice whoever is concerned whether directly or indirectly.

“We also want the government to kindly visit our issues by recognising and grading the stool of Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence before colonisation. By officially recognising and grading the Etsu Lokoja stool, we know everything will be laid to rest because that is the power of the government.

“If the government remain silent and looks away, it leaves the door open for this kind of thing to happen. And as a people, we will not want to see such things continue to happen. I urge my people to remain as peaceful and law-abiding as we have always been because this incident has drawn the attention of the government to our issue,” Dauda-Sheika added.

He noted that the Executive Chairman of Lokoja LGA and his security apparatus came for an on-the-spot assessment that Saturday morning as well as the Police, DSS and NSCDC.

He added, “The DPO, ‘A’ Division was also here with his men upon hearing the incident to ascertain what actually happened. They all condemned the ugly incident in strong terms. We have also been invited to the Police station and we have written our statement.

“Nupe people are law-abiding and we are not known for violence. Nobody in Lokoja will classify Nupe people as violent and lawbreakers, no! We like accommodating everyone. And that is why other tribes like marrying our daughters.”

Speaking on the possible cause of the attack, Dauda-Sheika said, “I think it has to be said as it should be said; Lokoja is traditionally Nupe and we were planning to have the annual Nupe Cultural Fiesta that we had last year.

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“That was why we sent out letters of invitation to all the relevant stakeholders including the media, and security agencies such as the Police, NSCDC, and DSS, as well as extending invitations to all other ethnic groups in Lokoja such as the Ebira, Yoruba, Oworo, Igala, Igbo communities to come and celebrate with us and our culture.

“We also extended the invitation to Maigari of Lokoja being the Chairman of Lokoja Local Government Traditional Council, to come and be the Special Royal Father of the day. But to our amazement, rather than accepting our invitation, the Maigari faulted it, and wrote back to us, saying, ‘Our letter lacks royal courtesy’ because we didn’t include the Chairman, Lokoja Traditional Council in our letter.

“The Maigari also went ahead in his letter to say that there is nothing like ‘Etsu Lokoja’. So, we wonder how will you say there is no Etsu Lokoja when we have existed even before the colonialists came, and we have our own way of administering ourselves abinitio.

“We were the earlier settlers here, and it has always been Etsu Lokoja before the colonialists came. In an attempt to set up their own thing, the colonialists put together this arrangement, and today we have a Maigari. But we have no problem with that at all because we have lived together peacefully for many years”, he said.

He stressed that the government was aware of the efforts and structures that the leadership of Nupe Natives in Lokoja had put in place to facilitate the government’s recognition of the Etsu Lokoja stool, to be able to administer themselves freely as an ethnic group.

He added, “So, the aborted cultural fiesta was never a coronation ceremony as it was being interpreted in some quarters, but a cultural celebration because the issue of coronation is very mundane. The most important thing for us is the installation of Etsu Lokoja which we did on January 23, 2024. We further did a public reenactment of that installation again on July 27, 2024, on the mountain which was the root of Lokoja, and will send a letter of reminder to the government on the need to recognize and grade Etsu stool.

“We also have a compendium of all our activities that we have done which was also sent to the State Government as well as all the security agencies. We are making sure as law-abiding people to follow principles and due process because we are not violent but very intelligent and developers that add value when we have the freedom to do so. The government has identified Lokoja as a Cosmopolitan city and that is why they have chosen to identify, recognize and grade certain ethnic groups including the Ohi Anebira of Lokoja, Onu Igala of Lokoja, Oba Yoruba of Lokoja, Maigari Lokoja for Housa, as well as Etsu Lokoja.

“So, the Nupe people deserve to be recognised and have a graded stool of Etsu Lokoja which had been in existence long before the colonialists came. This is to ensure fairness, equity and justice so that we can always have confidence in the actions of the government, and we want to always participate in the development of the land.

“We are not happy that we are sidetracked; we want to be part of the players because we were one of the early settlers but we are not in the scheme of things. We want to be included because we do not have another home, Lokoja is our home and we have nowhere to go like others. What happens to our children and unborn generations if we refuse to get things right now,” Dauda-Shelika said.

Also speaking, the National President, Nupe Natives of Lokoja Union, Alh. Abubakar Ndashite, said the event scheduled for Saturday, December 21, was a celebration of Nupe Cultural heritage and not any form of coronation as being insinuated from some quarters.

He expressed his displeasure over the aborted cultural event, noting that the union had expended so much of it, and urged the government to bring perpetrators to book.

When our correspondent visited the palace, the police officer declined to make comments as he claimed not to have been authorised to speak on the matter.

Efforts to get the state police command to react proved abortive as the public relations officer, SP William Aya, could not be reached.