News Editor
From Dooshima Terkura Makurdi
A Civil Society Organisation, operating under the auspices of “TAKULUKU ANYAM AZENGA Advocacy Organisation,” has called on the Federal Government to take immediate action to stop the genocide against the Benue people.
The group made this call on Tuesday, during a press conference in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The Convener of the group, Dr. Bem Ugoh, who expressed deep concern over the recent attacks on Benue communities, particularly the Tiv people, urged the federal government to take immediate action to stop the genocide against the people.
The group strongly condemned the recent attacks on Tiv communities in Benue, Taraba, and Nasarawa States, which have resulted in the loss of many innocent lives describing the attacks as “barbaric” and “tantamount to full-blown war for ethnic cleansing of the Tiv people.
“The Tiv people have become vulnerable to combine attacks of intertribal hostilities, inter communal conflict and the terrible invasion by marauding Fulani arsonists masquerading as herdsmen.
“This is inconceivable to tolerate continued tresspass of Benue communities is in violation of the already established anti open grazing law that is in place following a legislation by the Benue state House of Assembly.
“However it is becoming clearer to the public that this effective law has suffered non enforcement and implementation hurdles hence the notoriety by marauding headers and apparent indifference of law enforcement agency who are neither protecting unsuspecting victims of herders nor apprehending the emboldened culprits.”
Dr Ugoh also called for the strengthening of law enforcement agencies to implement the Anti- Open Grazing Law saying there was an urgent need for the National Assembly to constitute a high-powered team to investigate the persisting existential threats against the Tiv people.
The group also emphasized that the Tiv people have historically been the original inhabitants of the Benue valley, with a concrete migratory and settlement history dating back before colonialism.
He therefore dismissed claims of Fulani land ownership in the Benue valley, stating that the claims are “completely a wrong narrative taken too far.”
He urged the government provide assistance to survivors of the barbaric attacks and work towards rehabilitation, reconstruction, and resettlement of displaced persons.
The group’s demanded for justice, protection, and rehabilitation for the affected communities are timely and necessary.
