The Immediate past Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, has condemned in strong terms the continued wanton killing of people in Benue State.
He therefore called on the federal government and all the security agencies to as a matter of urgency, set out to unravel the nature of the killings and fish out those involved.
9News Nigeria reports that several persons have been recently killed in series of attacks orchestrated by suspected herdsmen in Logo, Guma and Gwer East LGAs of the state.
Several persons and many were rendered homeless during the attacks.
The ex-minister in a statement personally signed and forwarded to DAILY POST on Thursday, affirmed that it was high time people of Benue rose up to defend their existence from these intruders.
His statement reads:
“It is very sad that when other communities in Nigeria are brazing up to the challenges of development, Benue people are burying scores of their own. It would appear that the intractable challenges of daily slaughtering of Benue sons and daughters have defied all permutations from Agatu to Guma, Logo, Buruku, Kwande, Vandekiya, et al.
“It has been one story of wow and wanton destruction of lives and properties. It is a norm world over that the protection of lives and properties is the primary aim of government.
“For close to a decade now, Benue people have been murdered in their numbers and both government and the citizenry are still at the loss as to who these marauding hoodlums are, what their motives are and the cause(s) of their mindless killing of Benue people.
“The worrisome dimension of the recent heartless daily killings has made it imperative that government should take urgent steps to initiate policies and set up appropriate machineries to address the mayhem that has been unleashed on the Benue people.
“The government must as a matter of urgency, set out to unravel the nature of the killings the people who are involved.
“Government immaterially should set up a comprehensive special committee made of critical stakeholders, the herdsmen, farmers, security agencies and government to oversee as superintend over the relationship between the herdsmen and farmers.
“The mandate of this committee is to engender a convivial environment for dialogue to continue to be held for all component of Benue State. Clashes must always be promptly investigated and concrete action taken by government to unravel all matter connected therewith.
“Government must assume responsibility of the protective of lives and properties of Benue people.
“We can no longer wish away the fact of the reality that we must accept to live together as one. Even then, we must urgently assemble all retired Benue armed forces personnel to offer solution on how to contain the situation. At this time, all hands must be on deck. Now that government has demonstrated helplessness, all citizens of Benue must stand up to defend our existence.”
