SAN FRANCISCO, May 23, (THEWILL) – Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, says suspected herdsmen have killed 492 people in Benue in 2018 alone.
Ortom said this on Tuesday during the burial of two Catholic priests, Felix Tyolaha and Joseph Gor, and the 17 parishioners killed by gunmen during a raid on Saint Ignatius Parish, Mbalom, Benue.
The governor regretted the attacks on the church, wondering: “these people were in the church and not on their farms; by this act, they gave moved their narrative to include other motives.”
He called on the federal government to arrest the killer-herdsmen, saying “we know our killers but they are not arrested or invited for interrogation; they have stated at several fora that they would reclaim their land.”
The governor said the anti-open grazing law passed by the state assembly and accented by him, was the best way in curbing incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the country.
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo who attended the service said the killers will not go unpunished.
The Vice President, who was accompanied on the trip by Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and other top ranking politicians of different political shades, including Senator George Akume, expressed the Federal Government’s commitment to end the attacks.
He said the perpetrators of such dastardly and heinous crimes did not deserve to live among decent people and prayed for the conversion of their souls.
On his part, John Cardinal Onayikan, the Cardinal of the Abuja Catholic Diocese, urged Nigerians to rise above religious, political and ethnic divides to save the country from drifting into anarchy.
In his sermon at the service, the Cardinal said the killings across the country must stop and called on well-meaning Nigerians to unite in fighting the great evil that had befallen the country.
“This must not be politicized. The nation is in a state of emergency. We demand for synergy; division, especially on tribal lines so as not to throw our nation to anarchy,” he said
He called on the Federal Government to act decisively to end the spate of killings across the country and called on the people to be vigilant and “be your brother’s keeper”.
He warned that if murderers were allowed to continue without checkmating them, it will come to a time when people will begin to use other means of self- defence.
Onaiyikan also called for forgiveness and warned against reprisals, saying the souls of the righteous were in the hands of God.
The corpses of the Mbalom church attack were laid to rest at a small hilltop village situated on the outskirts of Ikpayongo, in Gwer east local government council around 2:45pm.
