IGBOZURUOKE FORUM

More details of how Fulani herdsmen suspected to be behind the killing of innocent people in Guma and Logo local government areas of Benue State were able to carry out their dastardly act are emerging as bulletproof vests with blood stains and a Nigerian Army identity card were seen at Tomatar, one of the densely populated communities attacked by the herders.

This is just as 51 additional corpses are said to have been recovered from different parts of the two local government areas of the state on a day that suspected herdsmen were alleged to have carried out another attack on Saturday morning which killed 11 persons in Tombu village in Logo Local Government Area of the state.

The dead bodies were recovered barely a day after Minister of Interior, Lt. General Abdulrahman Dambazzau (rtd), visited the state for a fact finding mission on the dastardly invasion and attack on local communities. Investigations by Sunday Telegraph indicate that the bullet proof vests, which were in colours of the Nigerian Customs Service and dumped at one of the scenes of the attack at Tomatar in Guma Local Government Area, were believed to have been used by the invaders to execute the systematic attack. Governor Samuel Ortom, when confronted on the matter said he also got wind of the issue but could not make conclusions as it was being handled by security operatives.

The governor, however, confirmed that an additional 40 bodies have been recovered in the Guma and Logo local government areas. The governor, who spoke to journalists shortly after an emergency stakeholders meeting at the Government House in Makurdi, said hordes of people are still missing.

“On Thursday, additional bodies were recovered in Logo Local Government and so you are talking about more than 40 dead people and another one has been recovered from Guma axis, so more are being recovered.” However, in spite of this the governor still appealed for calm and called for harmony among the diverse ethnic groups in the state to put an end to the seemingly endless attacks by herdsmen on communities. Ortom, who said this on Saturday in Makurdi while intimating the people on the incessant attacks on Benue people by herdsmen, decried the huge loss of lives and property.

The governor said that he would henceforth give priority attention to safeguarding the lives and the property of his people. He called on the people to put aside their political and ethnic differences and work toward addressing the security challenges before them He vowed to ensure that the incessant attacks by herdsmen became things of the past.

A witness from Logo Local Government Area told Sunday Telegraph that the herdsmen on Friday, made incursions into Akombo village, Tse Vii and Tse Agule communities of the immediate past caretaker chairman of Logo, Hon. Usula Vii in Mbainange district of Mbagber council ward of Gaambe- Tiev, killed and wounded many people while hundreds were rendered homeless. He said four villages including Tse Toradi, Channel One, Akenawe, and Meeme among others were not spared by the insurgents.

As the suspected Fulani herdsmen continue their terrorist activities killing people in different communities in Benue State, members of the National Assembly and a conglomeration of sociocultural organisations from the state have threatened to file charges of genocide at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against the Federal Government. Leader of the state caucus in the House of Representatives, Hon. Emmanuel Orker- Jev, in an exclusive chat with Sunday Telegraph, said the latest attacks have pushed to the wall the people of the state hence any action by the Federal Government short of ending the carnage will not be accepted.

He described the series of attacks and perennial killings, maiming of people and destruction of houses and farm lands by the suspected Fulani herdsmen as “a slap in the face of the people of Benue”, saying they have resolved that this will be the last time such a heinous crime would be visited on the people without consequences. Orker-Jev said as lawmakers, they have since 2011 sponsored several motions condemning and drawing the attention of the Federal Government and relevant security agencies in the country on the terrorist activities of the marauding Fulani herdsmen, but this has not yielded any positive results.

He disclosed that legislators from the state were consulting with elders and other stakeholders on the next move to take adding that until the Federal Government put an end to the “deliberate plan to exterminate the people of Benue, we will not believe in any promise being made.”

“We strongly believe that these attacks are carefully planned to wipe out the people of Benue because the security agencies cannot be so incompetent as to allow these dastard acts to be committed repeatedly in the state, right before their noses” Orker-Jev, who is the chairman of the House committee on rules and business, said the caucus was not impressed with the visit of the minister of interior to the state stressing that “what we need is a firm and decisive action from the Federal Government against perpetrators of this evil. We want both the sponsors and the executioners to be identified, apprehended and prosecuted immediately.”

Similarly, Benue elders, under three socio-cultural organisations in the state: Mdzough U Tiv, Idoma National Forum and Omi Ny’Igede, have urged the Federal Government to “stand up against the planned genocide in Benue State.” President-General of Mdzough U Tiv, Engr. Edward Ujege, who is leading the socio-cultural organisations in the state, disclosed that what is happening in the state is genocide and they have risen from their sleep to face the common enemy head on. He said “there was an alleged armed Fulani militia build-up and convergence at the Nigeria-Cameroon border and at the Agatu border with Nasarawa State.”

According to Ujege, “It was reliably gathered that the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore held clandestine meetings in Nigeria and abroad to visit mayhem and genocide on the people of Benue State.

“The plot was said to be multi- directional and aimed to simultaneously invade and attack Benue from every angle so that there would be no escape for our defenceless people.” Meanwhile, the National Union of Benue State Students (NUBESS) , has threatened to retaliate should the Federal Government fail to end the carnage in the state by arresting all leaders of the Miyetti Allah who have severally dared the governor to attempt implementing the anti-grazing law. National president of NUBESS, Miss Vera Akase told Sunday Telegraph at the weekend that it was curious that the Buhari-led Federal Government has been treating with levity the “threat made by the leadership of Miyetti Allah who have now turned their killing machines on five local government areas of Benue state in Guma, Logo, Otukpo, Ado and Oju.” Also reacting to the killings, the Association of Benue Journalists (ABJ) has urged the federal government to clampdown on `terrorists’ herders’ who have arguably developed strategic plans to wipe out Benue people.

Chairman of the ABJ, Mr. Emmanuel Iffer, in an interview with Sunday Telegraph condemned the persistent killings insisting that the murderous activities of the herdsmen show flashes of variables of `genocide’ and “the association believes only the Federal Government’s might remain the requisite antidote to deal with the situation. However, the major culprits suspected to be behind the killings on New Year’s Day have explained they attacked their host villagers following the theft of their cattle.

The President of the Benue State branch of Myetii Allah Breeders Association, Garus Gololo told a correspondent of BBC News (pidgin) that the problem started when some people tried to rustle their cows, while they were emigrating from the state to some neighbouring states.

Gololo said: “While we were trying to relocate to Taraba State, through Nassarawa State to the border town of Nengere, some rustlers came and stole about 1000 cows from us and we had to fight back.” But prominent Benue activist and former Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav has called for the establishment of a judicial commission of inquiry into the killings in order to identify the truth and resolve the problem once and for all. Speaking with one of our correspondents, Tsav decried the killing and its frequency, stating it is gradually assuming the status of genocidal attacks.

Much as he commended the Anti-Open Gracing Law which he said will also protect cattle, he said sufficient time should have been given for setting up of ranches before implementation of the law. “It happened during the administration of Governor Gabriel Suswan.

Several meetings were held and the Sultan of Sokoto Sir, Abubakar III was even brought down to Benue to appeal to the Fulani people. It was in the wake of that that the state government brought the Anti- Open Grazing Law. “As it is now, the enactment of this law seems to have aggravated the Fulanis the more. So, it is a calculated agenda to exterminate the Tivs and take over the Benue Valley. Now the authorities that should take concrete actions to stem these genocidal tendencies are keeping quiet. It is always to sympathise or condole with the people and the state government. Is that the best they can do?

This definitely is a deliberate policy by the Hausa/Fulani to exterminate the Tivs and the other minorities within the Benue Valley so that they can occupy the whole land and islamise the entire environment. On what could be done to stem the tide, the former police officer said: “Leaders of the state should seek audience with Mr. President and tell him look, enough is enough. If you are not going to defend us, we will find a way of defending ourselves. The second is that, the Tiv have their own traditional ways of fighting. And so they can resolve to their own traditional way of fighting to defend themselves. I don’t need to explain this traditional ways of war fare. It is spiritual and real, they can resolve to that.”

Meanwhile, the National President of Youth Wing of Christians Association of Nigeria (YOWICAN) Mr. Daniel Kadzai has said that the Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris’, statement that the Benue Killings is communal crisis has confirmed his earlier communiqué accusing the IGP of executing an Islamic agenda using his office. Kadzai, in a statement signed and issued yesterday in Jos, said that the IGP statement is not only capable of causing national war, but it has proven that he is acting on president Muhammadu Buhari’s script designed to depopulate Christians in Nigeria using Fulani herdsmen terrorists.

“If Buhari is still interest in keeping Nigeria as an indivisible entity, the Inspector- General of Police should be sacked now or the country will soon run into trouble due to the highly inflammable statements he is making. Why didn’t Idris say the killing of Fulani herdsmen in Numan last November was a communal crisis?

When Christians are killed by Muslim Fulani herdsmen it is communal clash, but if Muslim Fulani herdsmen were killed in a reprisal attack in Numan, he addresses the suspects as Bachama militias!”

Newtelegraph