Says no going back on anti-open grazing law
• Accuses IGP of bias, abandoning state
• 15 die in fresh Adamawa cattlemen attack
• PDP berates Buhari over carnage
The Benue State government yesterday declared it had lost
confidence in the ability of the country’s security agencies to bring to
justice herdsmen accused of killings in the
state.
It also warned the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association
of Nigeria (MACBAN) and other Fulani socio-cultural organisations to stop calls
for a repeal of the anti-open grazing law, vowing the legislation would remain.
“The Benue State government will not repeal or suspend this
law for any reason. And we appeal to the police and other security agencies to
enforce the law, which is their constitutional responsibility. However, if they
continue to fail, with the help of God, we shall overcome this dark episode in
our history,” it said.
Addressing a world press conference in Makurdi, the state
capital, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja,
stated: “We are simply asking the police and other security agencies in the
country to put an end to these killings, arrest the people behind them and
prosecute them, to regain the people’s confidence.”
He condemned the failure of the Inspector General of Police
(IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to relocate to the state, as ordered by President
Muhammadu Buhari, noting that the police chief was sighted for just a day,
following which he left immediately.
Onoja said the IGPs initial description of the “pre-planned
Benue killings by Fulani herdsmen on January 1 and 2, 2018, as mere communal
clash” showed that Idris “does not accord any urgency or seriousness to
arresting the perpetrators of the mass murder.”
He regretted that the body language of the police boss might
have “emboldened the herdsmen militia to further lay false claim of ownership
to the Benue Valley through a so-called right of conquest.”
The IGP’s statement, he said, “is highly provocative,
insensitive and completely violates the basic principle of natural justice with
his open bias against the innocent people of Benue State.”
According to the spokesman, Idris has “demonstrated his
incompetence as a police chief and we have lost confidence and trust in him,
since he has clearly shown that he either lacks the capacity to apprehend these
armed Fulani militia or by his inaction and utterances portrayed himself as
complicit in the grand plot to dispossess our people of their ancestral land by
violent means.”
On claims by the police that the state operates an armed
militia, the commissioner said: “It is not true. It is the prerogative of the
police to go after such group and arrest them, rather than continue with falsehood.
On assumption of office, this government declared an amnesty and hundred of
youths surrendered illegal arms. These (arms) were publicly destroyed in full
public glare and in accordance with specifications of the United Nations, which
sent experts to carry out the exercise under the supervision of the
Presidential Committee on Small Arms.”
“If the IGP is really sincere with disarming militias, the
starting point should be with the Fulani herdsmen, rated the fourth most deadly
on the Global Terrorism Index,” he added.
Meanwhile, a deadly clash between herdsmen and villagers in
Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State killed about 15 persons at the
weekend.
The Police Spokesman in the state, Othman Abubakar, however,
put the number at six. “The information I got is that the herdsmen lost three
people and the farmers also lost three during the clash between the two
groups,” he said.
Trouble began when cattle allegedly overran a pond, said to
be the only source of water for a community. A woman who protested against the
development was attacked, sustained machete wounds, but managed to flee. The
community members mobilised and confronted the herdsmen, allegedly killing
four. The herdsmen, in turn, staged a reprisal and razed Fimba, Shiure and
Tinde villages, killing about a dozen people.
A resident of Tinde and a university lecturer, Dr. Amos
Yusuf, said: “I was told by some of my relations that escaped from the village
that 15 people were killed during the invasion of three villages, including
mine, by some Fulani herdsmen. They burnt the three villages and killed 15
people.”
The poor management of the farmers/herdsmen crisis has
continued to draw attacks from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Yesterday the party criticised government’s handling of the killings by Fulani
herdsmen.
“We believe that the Federal Government’s decision to set up
a committee to address the issues of herdsmen killings is a pretentious
approach to a matter that requires firm action and leadership by the president,
in line with his oath of office to protect all Nigerians, irrespective of
creed, tribe and political affiliation,” the party said after a meeting of its
National Working Committee and PDP governors in Asaba, Delta State.
In the joint statement by the National Chairman Prince Uche
Secondus and the Chairman Governors’ Forum Ayodele Fayose, the party urged
Buhari to address the nation on how he plans to end the carnage.
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