- Threaten to defend themselves
- We’ve lost over 1000 people
- Fulani herdsmen occupying destroyed communities — Rep Okwu
By Emman Ovuakporie and Johnbosco Agbakwuru,
MEMBERS of the Benue State caucus in the House of Representatives, yesterday, slammed President Muhammadu Buhari for downplaying what they described as genocide against the Agatu people of the state. Briefing journalists, the 11 members led by Rep Orker Jev, decried the lukewarm attitude of the Federal Government towards the ‘jihad’ being waged against Benue people by Fulani herdsmen.
Jev who read the press statement on behalf of the group insisted that if nothing was done to address the issue Benue people would have no other option than to defend themselves against the herdsmen.
The 11 lawmakers, who urged urgent resolution of the problem and signed signed the statement were: Orker Jev (Buruku Constituency), Herman Hembe (Konshisha/Vandeikya), John Dyegh (Gboko/Tarka), Samson Okwu (Oju/Obi), Ezekiel Adaji (Otukpo/Ohimni), Hassan Saleh (Ado/Ogbadibo/Okpokwu), Adamu Entonu (Apa/Agatu), Emmanuel Udende (Katsina-Ala/Logo/Ukum), Dickson Tarkighir (Makurdi/Guma), Wayo Benjamin (Kwande/Ushongo) and Gbillah Mark T. (Gwer East/Gwer West.)
Specifically, Samson Okwu lamented that after massacring Agatu people including women and children and razing down the eight communities, the alleged perpetrators of the calamity, the Fulani herdsmen, have taken over the areas unchallenged.
Okwu told Saturday Vanguard that the killings that took place in Agatu were nearly the same style used by the Boko Haram in North-East and that the Federal Government should set up an intervention fund to rebuild Agatu.
Speaking for the 11-man caucus, Jev said: “A genocide that is typical of the Nigerian state has been downplayed or ignored until it spirals out of control. After the Agatu mass massacre, a few headlines were recorded, a few sympathetic comments in high places but concrete moves to stop the killings have not been made. FG’s lukewarm attitude
“We decry the lukewarm attitude of the Federal Government towards this ‘jihad’ being waged against our people by the herdsmen. We condemn the belated reaction of President Muhammadu Buhari and his Minister of Interior, Lt. Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazzau (retd), who broke their unholy silence a week after over 500 people were killed and 10 villages razed in Agatu area of the state… Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/agatu-genocide-benue-lawmakers-slam-buhari-2/
