SAN FRANCISCO, January 04, (THEWILL) – Makurdi, the Benue State capital was on lockdown, on Wednesday, as thousands of protesting residents booed and stoned Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state.
The protesters, majorly youths, took over the strategic Wurukum roundabout and Makurdi Lafia Road in protest over Tuesday’s attack on Benue communities by suspected herdsmen, which left over 50 dead.
The governor had gone to placate the restive youths who were calling on the presidency to bring the culprits to book.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Presidential Intervention needed’, ‘Why value cows to Humans’, and ‘Stop this incessant blood bath’.
The irate youths, who sang war songs also demanded President Muhammadu Buhari’s resignation, if he could not address the herdsmen menace in the state and the entire country.
Some of them chanted, “We will not vote for the present administration again both the State and Federal level if this crises don’t stop.”
The protesters, numbering over 3,000, went wild when they saw a car conveying about six bodies from Guma council to the morgue of the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH).
When Ortom, alongside members of the State Executive Council, tried to prevail on the youths to remain calm, with a promise that the matter had been reported to the President, the protesters became unruly and started throwing stones and sticks.
Security operatives had to whisk away the governor from the scene to safety.
