Benue has been turned to killing field – BYF
The Benue Youth Forum, BYF, has raised concern concerning the recent statement attributed to the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MAKH, a Fulani sociocultural association, lamenting that armed herdsmen have turned Benue state into a killing field.
In statement by the BYF they said it is saddened by the content of the communique issued at the end of the expanded National Executive Committee (NEC) and State Chairmen meeting of MAKH where they lashed Governor Samuel Ortom saying “the meeting condemned the continuous profiling of Fulani pastoralists by the beleaguered Governor of Benue Samuel Ortom through his satanic anti-grazing law that he has been using to officially consficate and auction millions of cattle belonging to Fulanis in Benue- Nasarawa, Benue, and Benue-Taraba boarder communities.”
But reacting Wednesday in Makurdi, the National President of BYF, Terrence Kuanum who described the outing of the group as shameful and unfortunate appealed to security agencies to apprehend their leadership over the unending killings in Benue state.
He said, “it is indeed shocking that the apex socio-cultural body of Fulani ethnic nationality who have variously taken responsibility for the genocide in Benue after openly declaring war on the people because of the promulgation and implementation of the Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law of the state are now the ones crying blue murder.
“That the group accused Governor Ortom of confiscating cattle belonging to Fulanis in Benue’s borders with Nasarawa and Taraba states when of a truth, the Fulanis are the once unleashing terror on the people in a bid to take over their lands is another irony.
“They have no moral rights to question the anti-grazing law of the Benue state government, especially as they are known for their penchant for breaking laws because they enjoy the backing of high-profile politicians particularly those of Fulani extraction.
“They also need to know that there is nothing as retrogressing as calling for the development of 415 grazing reserves in the country as nations desirous of developing have moved past archaic and anti-development processes and patterns such as the ones the Fulanis are calling for.
While cautioning that Fulanis should not think that Nigeria belongs to them, the BYF also “condemned in totality recent comments by former Bauchi state governor, Isa Yuguda in which he alleged that Governor Ortom made a law to chase Fulani herdsmen out of Benue.”
The youth group alleged that the former governor in that television interview tended to also justify and support the incessant killing of innocent farmers in Benue and other parts of the country by armed Fulani militia claiming to be herdsmen which he said should attract the urgent attention of security agencies.
Appealing to President Muhammadu Buhari to grant the request by Governor Ortom to procure weapons for the newly created Benue Community Volunteer Guards to enable them protect the people, the BYF also urged him to grant security agencies authorisation “to tackle the security situation in Benue without protecting the Fulani militia who have turned the state into a killing field.
“We, therefore, pledge our support for Governor Ortom and urge him not to be deterred by the antics of those who are synonymous with bloodshed as they shall fall by their own swords, now or later.”
(Vanguard)
