BENUE KILLINGS: We may be forced to create our own army, Unongo threatens

It was tales of lamentations, while tears freely flowed as the people of Benue State on Thursday held a mass burial for victims of the recent suspected herdsmen attacks at the IBB Square, Makurdi.

Many of them blame the Federal Government of Nigeria who they said has continued to fail them, leading to herdsmen killing them with reckless abandonment time after time.

A leader of the Tiv nation and the chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Paul Unongo, could not help but challenge President Muhammadu Buhari to either do the needful and end the wanton killings or Benue citizens would have no choice but train their own army in the state to defend themselves.

“Benue people sacrificed blood for the unity of this country and will not allow a section of Fulani herdsmen to kill our people in cold blood.

“I am telling Nigerians that my people cannot continue to be cannon fodder for this country. If the government can’t protect us, we will mobilise and train our people into an army to defend us. We are 100 per cent in support of what Governor Samuel Ortom has done. I am the spiritual and ancestral leader of the Tiv nation; enough is enough,” Unongo said.

Further demanding for the arrest of the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre, Unongo added, “If the Federal Government cannot stop or arrest those behind the killings; in two weeks, we shall raise an army of our own. We cannot allow people to colonise us again, we have all it takes to do that.”

Expressing his pains over the killings, a former military governor of Plateau and Katsina states, Maj. Gen. Lawrence Onoja (retd.), said the killings are genocidal conspiracy against the Benue people.

“Some of us, in 1966, fought the Nigerian civil war; Benue has contributed to the unity of this country. If the Federal Governmrnt refuses to address the killings in Benue and if we decide to raise our army as advocated by our elders to defend ourselves, l will not mind to command that army despite my age,” he said.

Almost in tears, the state governor, Samuel Ortom said during the burial, “If the herdsmen think that the killing of our people will make us to stop the enforcement of the law, they have failed. We will not be deterred because I am ready to pay the supreme price for the implementation of the anti-open grazing law. I will continue to insist on the arrest of the factional leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Houre.”

The state Assembly Majority leader, Benjamin Adenyi, who spoke on behalf of the state lawmakers wondered how a Buhari, who came to Benue State during electioneering, after being elected, decided to look the other way while Benue people were being killed.

READ ALSO: Southern leaders want Buhari govt to brand Myette Allah, herdsmen as terrorists

The representative of the United Nations, Dr Mathins Ejibike, in his condolence message to the government and people of the state, said killings in Benue required international attention.

“We want an enlightened approach to this matter. We should pray that this killing should be the last in Benue State.”

According to him, the UN had received a report that over 20,000 refugees were already in camps and assured that the body would look into their plight.

Tiv nation paramount ruler, Prof. James Ayatse, noted that Tiv people residing in Nasarawa and Taraba states are still being killed by Fulani herdsmen on a daily basis since the Benue killings started, and vowed that the people “must put an end to these killings. This is the 47th time that Fulani people would attack the Benue people,” he said.

 

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