May 05, (THEWILL) – A group under the Forum of AYATUTU Professors, a Tiv body, have advocated for a community approach to security and self-help that must be within the framework of careful post-conflict management of its complexities.
It also stressed the need to mobilise and organise people to defend their lives, land, and the future wellbeing of their children in Benue State.
“We must defend against ambitious land grabbers working in cohort with some power-seeking, disoriented, ambitious but self-centred politicians and traditional rulers”, it stated.
In a statement signed by Prof. Tor Joe Iorapuu, Chairman, Board of Trustees and Council of Management, Prof. Simon Verlumun Irtwange, Secretary, Board of Trustees and Council of Management, after it meeting, the Forum calls for the expansion of the role of Benue State Bureau of Homeland Security to include Farming Communities Protection.
It further recommends an annual levy of N1,000 for all taxable adults in Tiv land and Benue State, in general, for funding the activities of the renamed Bureau of Homeland Security and Farming Communities Protection.
The Forum encourages the Tiv and Benue people to remain focused and united, noting that the era of the attitude of a community for myself is gone.
“The longer we journey on the road to unity, the more sense of belonging grows and deepens. This is the only way we can collectively challenge and fight this deliberate but unprovoked humiliation.”
The Forum encouraged the Governor of Benue State, Revd Fr Hyacinth Alia, and all the Paramount Traditional Rulers to keep their focus on this uncomfortable cross, and equally encourages all the National and State Legislatures of Benue to speak, act urgently and interrupt their comfort zones to deal with these potential whispers of war.
The AYATUTU Professors, therefore, decried the ongoing killings in Benue State by the marauding armed Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors for purposes of Islamisation, land grabbing, disruption of the economy, the culture and education of the people, and mining of minerals.
The Forum acknowledged that despite the efforts of the various tiers of Government, they have failed in their responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the Tiv people and Benue State citizens in general and called for a new approach to change the trend.
