April 13, (THEWILL) – Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has asked the Federal Government to suspend the conduct of the National Population Census until all Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are returned to their ancestral homes.
Playing host to a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum led by its President, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, at Benue Peoples House, Makurdi, on Thursday, Governor Ortom noted that close to two million indigenes of Benue State were in the IDP camps and would not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.
“What the Federal Government must do before carrying out the census was to ensure adequate security for the IDPs in Benue and elsewhere in the country, to go back to their homes to be counted.
“I want to say that the Federal Government should suspend the issue of census because it looks like the proposed census is coming with an agenda. So, until they are able to restore security for IDPs to go back to their ancestral lands, to give all of them opportunities to be counted in their homes of birth. Because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities,” he said.
He lamented that at present, there was so much injustice, bias and tribalism going on in the country that both the leaders and the people were expected to correct before the country could move forward.
A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, quotes the Governor decrying the sustained attacks on Benue communities by herdsmen over the years, in which more than six thousand people have died and property worth billions of naira destroyed with the Federal Government doing little to help.
“In Benue State alone, we have lost over six thousand people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed and we are still counting because others are still in the hospital,” the statement said.
Governor Ortom, however, maintained that despite the unprovoked attacks and other injustices meted on the people of the state, Benue people will remain law-abiding citizens because they believe in Nigeria, and have worked for the unity of the country.
Earlier, the President of Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, urged the Federal Government to suspend the proposed national population census because he believed that the exercise was coming with a hidden agenda.
He frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen have been killing people of the middle belt in connivance with other Fulani socio-cultural groups like the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM), openly claiming responsibility without being arrested.
Dr. Pogu said what has made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the middle belt more frightening is that, after killing and displacing the villagers, the Fulani came and renamed those villages.
He maintained that the people of the middle belt will not cede their land to anyone or group, which he noted is their heritage from their ancestors.
Dr. Pogu stated that for everyone to have a sense of belonging, the Federal Government should move beyond the mere issuance of condolence messages whenever people are killed and decisively deal with the killers and their sponsors.
