This resulted in a confrontation between them and security agents.
No fewer than three police officers have been killed during ethnic clashes in Takum and Kurmi local government areas of Taraba State.
The policemen were reportedly on a peacekeeping mission in the area but were overpowered by a militia group, which not only killed them but also stole their rifles.
The security agents were said to have stopped a cultural procession of the Kutep cultural group in Takum town after the planners of the occasion ignored the orders from the authorities.
This resulted in a confrontation between them and security agents.
Daily Trust reports that the confrontation later turned into an ethnic crisis between Kutep and Jukuns, leading to the killing of many people and the burning of several residential buildings in the town.
A resident of Takum, Bala John, said three natives of Kutep were killed by the security agents during the confrontation.
He further stated that gunshots were heard in the night on Friday at different locations in the town and many corpses were found in the bush outside Takum.
He said curfew was enforced on the town, which helped in controlling the crisis.
In Bissaula, it was also learnt that many people were killed when a militia group attacked Ichen tribe in the town.
The militia group were said to be operating from Cameroon border.
The militia, it was further learnt, were used by a party in the Ndaka and Ichen ethnic crisis in Kurmi Local Government Area which had claimed several lives in the past three months.
However, further findings revealed that normalcy was gradually returning to both Bissaula and Takum towns.
Spokesperson for the Taraba State Police Command, DSP Usman Abdullahi, said in Takum town, normalcy had been restored while the curfew was still in force.
He said, however, the police had no record of the casualty in Takum but several arrests were made.
Usman also said that re-enforcement was dispatched to Bissaula town to restore peace and order while a manhunt for killers of three mobile policemen had begun.
He said, “The policemen who were on peace mission in the area were overpowered by a militia group and killed and their rifles stolen.”
He said the state police commissioner had directed that killers of the three mobile lolicemen in Bissaula must be fished out and made to face the law.