Atyap Chiefdom is a Nigerian traditional state of the Atyap people, located on the upper Kaduna River basin of the central Nigeria plateau in the Middle Belt. Its headquarters is at AÃÂ tak Njei, Zangon Kataf, southern Kaduna state, Nigeria.
The dominant people group in the Chiefdom are the native Atyap people.
The Atyap Chiefdom was created in 1995. In 2007, it was upáraded to a First Class status.
The Atyap Chiefdom is run by the Atyap Traditional Council, with the AÃÂ gwatyap as its head.
The Kaduna state Ministry of Local Government Affairs gave its number of Existing Districts as 16, Approved Districts as five and Approved Village Units as 61.
These are the districts between 1995 and 2017:
However, these are the current five Government-Approved Districts from 2017 onwards, trimmed down by the incumbent Kaduna State governor Nasir Elrufai who accordingly said, as reported by Premium Times, Nigeria that the committee set up to address the district administration in the state concluded that the proliferation of the number of districts from the pre-2001 era had created a financial burden for Local Government Councils. Hence, their reversal back to the pre-2001 era. Viz:
The headquarters of the Atyap Chiefdom is Atak Njei, where the Agwatyaps palace (Tyap: Magwatyap) is located.
Of recent, there had been moves by the Nasir el-Rufai-led Kaduna State government to question the locating of the palace in that very region located at the outskirts of the Hausa-Fulani-Kanuri dominated town of Zangon Kataf (Tyap: ÃÂànietcen-Añfakan), a move which has strongly been countered by the Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA).
Atyap Chiefdom consists of four royal houses divided according to the four clans of the Atyap people, namely:
The ruling monarchs of the Atyap Chiefdom are known as AÃÂ gwatyap.
The word is derived from these two Tyap words: añgwam (i.e. a monarch) and Añtyap (i.e. after the Atyap people) and literally means "monarch of the Atyap".
The names of these rulers who reigned from 1995 till date are as follows: