By Michael Jegede, Abuja.
The immediate past Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has called on Governor Samuel Ortom to take urgent steps to stop the dreadful senseless killings of the people of Benue State by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
Moro, a Benue State – born politician, made the call against the backdrop of the fresh attack unleashed by armed herdsmen on a Tiv community, Mkgovur village in Buruku Local Government Area.
The renewed onslaught by the marauding Fulani herdsmen in the area reportedly left about ten persons dead with several others injured.
The former Minister, in a statement he personally signed, opined that “the government in Benue State is failing in the elementary responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the Benue people.”
Comrade Moro stated that “lamentations of failure of the Federal Government and security agencies to curb the excesses of the rampaging Fulani herdsmen in the company of the Benue Sate Commissioner of Police and other security agencies, was a classical display of incapacity on the part of the Benue State Government, under the leadership of Governor Ortom as the Chief Security Office of the State whose duty it is to provide security for Benue People.”
He averred that it was the height of arrogance, irresponsibility and insensitivity for Amadu Auta, representing Ardo Buruku (Fulani chiefs in the area) to justify the killings of Benue people on the killing of three cows even in the presence of the Governor and security agents.
He further said: “Yesterday it was Agatu that was under siege but today it is either Guma or Buruku or Logo or Kwande or Ushongo and that soon the whole of Benue State would be overwhelmed by the Fulani herdsmen. The prevailing constant fear of Benue people of imminent possible attacks and killings of the people can no longer be taken as a normal way of life. We cannot pretend not to know that people are suffering and dying, virtually on a daily basis. This bloodshed must stop before Benue people resort to self help.”
Moro urged the Benue State government to, as a matter of urgency, evolve a comprehensive all-inclusive roadmap towards resolving the menace of the Fulani herdsmen in Benue State, while stressing the need for the immediate passage and signing into law of the Bill on grazing that has been laid in the Benue State House of Assembly for upward of year now.
“If the Benue State Government can pass a needless Benue StateChieftaincy law with a jet speed, why is it this difficult for the same government to pass the grazing law which the governor himself claims will offer solution to the farmers-herdsmen impasse in BenueState which has claimed and continue to claim many lives and property,” he queried