BEVERLY HILLS, May 01, (THEWILL) – The Benue Youth Forum on Saturday vowed to mobilise people of the state to defend the Anti-Open Grazing Law.
President of the Forum, Terrence Kuanum, in a press conference held in Makurdi on Saturday, condemned the statement of Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, that only Ruga would stop killings.
The youth leader advised the President’s spokesman to address objectively the issues raised by Ortom in his patriotic call on the President to act fast and declare a state of emergency on security and also call for a National Security Summit.
He added that the media aide did not bother to caution the herders to stop the killings.
Kuanum reminded Garba that the National Economic Council had laid to rest the issue of Ruga and Cattle Colony in Nigeria.
He said: “It was amazing how Garba Shehu in his drive to please his paymasters, saw the rejection of the Ruga and Cattle Colony by Benue people as a reason for the renewed killing of our people.
“We have been on this road before with Garba Shehu and his cohorts the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other killer headsmen and we know their intentions; but the resolve of Benue people remains unflinching that there is no land for Ruga and Cattle Colonies in the state.”
Recall that the State’s Governor Samuel Ortom had on Tuesday claimed that 70 people were killed in some local government areas of the state within two weeks.
After the Governor’s disclosure, killings by suspected herdsmen had continued in the state.
He said that the Fulani herdsmen and their cohorts had taken the peaceful disposition of the people of the state for lack of courage, but vowed that Benue people this time around were ready to defend its laws and their land from being taken away.
Kuanum said, “Let us make this loud and clear that the entire Benue State is fully mobilised to defend its laws and land against any threat posed by members of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and any other violent Fulani group.
“We are a peace loving-people but our peaceful and hospitable disposition should not be taken as fear or lack of courage.”
He stressed that no part of Benue would be given for Ruga or Cattle Colony.
The forum called on the Federal Government through the National Emergency Management Agency to rehabilitate the over 1 million people in various IDP camps in the state to enable them to return to their ancestral homes and to also release the N10 billion it promised for resettlement of those affected by the Fulani herdsmen attacks in 2018.
