BENUE KILLINGS: We’ll take laws into our hands in self-defence if… –State APC

Following the killings of about 50 people in Benue State by suspected Fulani herdsmen, the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the people “shall take laws into their hands in self-defense” should the Federal Government fail to put an end to the carnage.

Chairman of the party in the state, Comrade Abba Yaro,stated this in a statement issued in Abuja, where he said that the killing was an invitation to civil war and a clear case of ethnic cleansing.

He then called on the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Buratai, the Interior Minister, Lt Gen Danbazau, the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura and the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to protect Benue communities or “we rise in self defence, which will amount to the second civil war.”

Yaro emphasized that, “if the Fulanis are not called to order by the relevant authorities to stop the ethnic cleansing, like the lawless Fulanis are doing, Benue people shall take laws into their hands in self-defense”.

He said, “This is above party politics, it is human lives, how can you kill a pregnant woman and removed the unborn child yet slaughtered it? It is barbaric, unspeakable and generally unpalatable”.

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There have been insinuations that the onslaught was as a result of the Anti Open Grazing Law in Benue State, which the herdsmen had kicked against.

But Yaro said that the law was not targeted at any section of people but for the general security of Benue State, as a measure against cattle rustling and a solution to herders/farmers clash.

“The implementation is ongoing and we are in support of our governor, we are not deterred, the Anti Open Grazing Law has come to stay.

“Nigerians should not see the killings as a Benue problem but National crisis, the absence of peace in Benue is an absence of peace in Nigeria. We must treat it as a national ethnic cleansing by the Fulanis and collectively pressurize Mr President to put an end to it. If Boko Haram can be defeated, IPOB stopped, Fulani killings can be stopped, “he said.

 

 

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