Fika Emirate and Potiskum Prisons

At a Special Assembly of Fika Youth Movement in Potiskum, Yobe State, Friday, May 28, 2021, in pursuance of peaceful measures to avert the impending crisis associated with the painful denial of Federal Government’s approval to Fika Emirate to transform the old Potiskum Prisons into a Museum, it was observed/resolved as follows:

a) The unfortunate change of approval for a Museum at the site of the old Prisons in Potiskum for a Female Custodial Centre is brazen case of collusion of the Comptroller General of Nigerian Custodial Service with the Mai Pataskum, a retired prisons Officer to confuse the Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

b) The Mai Pataskum, Alhaji Bubaram Bauya is almost succeeding to use the approval of the Federal Government to Fika Emirate to prosecute the age­long ethnic cleansing of the area despite the realities of history, modern civilization, and political delineation of the area by Yobe State Government as core Bolewa cum Fika Emirate District Known as Kara.

c) That upon the approval of the former Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazau to return the Old Prisons in Potiskum to Fika Emirate via a letter with the reference number FMl/PS0/020/Tl/345 dated October 2015, the Mai Pataskum only gained consciousness on the 15th of July 2020, to demand for the reverse of the approval to Fika Emirate five years after. This amounts to an afterthought and wilful desire to cause confusion in the area. Besides, similar approval was made by the Interior Minister for the return of Old Prisons in Wukari, Taraba State, Maiduguri, Berno State to the emirates they situate without resentment nor the kind of useless animosities perpetrated by the Ngizim and Pakasum Emirate in Yobe state.

d) The Government of Yobe State led by Alhaji Mai Mala Buni and known for just and equitable disposition should cause the proper delineation of the boundaries of Fika and name change of Pataskum Emirate. IT should be recalled that while the Edict establishing news emirates indicated Yerimaram as the headquarters cum area of operations of the new Pataskum Emirate, Mai Pataskum opts to remain in Potiskum to rival the Emir of Fika, with a corrupt variant – Pataskum Emirate. Mai Pataskum operates from Potiskum to confuse the general public of the originality of the name Potiskum which is the official headquarters of Fika Emirate. Also, the existence of two Emirs and Emirates in Potiskum is a grand design for confusion, distraction, and anarchy.

e) The existence of Fika Emirate in Potiskum was necessitated by the British colonial masters who in 1924 amalgamated the pockets of chiefdoms and tribes in the area such as Kare-Kare, Ngamawa, Ngizimawa, Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri etc in Potiskum and Fika areas to form a central administration for the social-economic development of the area led by the Bolewa tribe. The persistent call for the sack of Fika Emirate and Bolewa tribe in Potiskum by the Ngizim of Pataskum Emirate amounts to a day robbery in the face of historical realities such as the lllorin Emirate in Kwara State and other places in Nigeria.

f) In Potiskum situates historical monuments such as the Potiskum well situated in the Bolewa area close to the ‘disputed’ Potiskum Old Prisons area which none of the tribes could claim ownership. His is a strong indication that all the tribes migrated at various times to the area, hence the claims of the Old Prisons as the House of Dawi by Mai Pataskum are a brazen lie concocted to draw sympathy to their veiled plan to annex Fika Emirate by subtle means.

g) Should the Federal Government fail to uphold the earlier approval to Fika Emirate to transform the Old Potisum Prisons into a Musuem and fall into the gambit of Mai Patasum, Comptroller-General of Nigerian Correctional Service who has already mis-led the Minister of Interior; it would be a clear case of policy somersault against the Federal Government. The practice of some new Ministers cancelling the approval of predecessors on trivial and baseless ethnic considerations would further ridicule the President Buhari – led administration, leading to the eruption of ethnic protests, disruptions, upheavals, and war.

Signed                 

Abdullahi Barde

Director of Socials & Publicity