Stop Benue Killings Or Risk Famine, Citizens Tell FG

Concerned Benue indigenes under the auspices of Vanguard Against Tiv Massacre (VATIM) have condemned the unabated killings in Benue State and attributed the prolonged killings to neglect by state security apparatus.VATIM charged the federal government to see to it that these killings are brought to an end before the commencement of the farming season, pointing out that if the senseless killings persist, the country may be plunged into famine since Benue is the food basket of the nation and its citizens, who are predominantly farmers, cannot farm even though the government wants to diversify the economy through agriculture.In a statement jointly signed by its chairman and Secretary, Mr Ter Acka and Aondover Lawrence Utsaha, respectively and made available to LEADERSHIP, yesterday, VATIM said the attacks could have been averted by conventional security apparatus had the people not been left unprotected and at the mercy of invading Fulani herdsmen.According to VATIM, the attacks had resulted in the death of over 600 people in Buruku, Kwande, Agatu, Gwer East, Gwer West, Guma and Gboko local government areas, with over 30,000 people displaced and property and means of livelihood, including farmlands worth billions of naira destroyed.While pointing out that the people of the state had, in the face of the attacks which had taken the form of ethnic cleansing, continued to sue for peace, using dialogue as a means towards its resolution, they may be compelled to resort to other measures of protecting themselves unless they are assured of governments protection.The group accused government of being selective in handling issues of security in Benue, noting that whereas government had maintained stoic silence in spite of abundant evidence that the attacks on harmless farmers were carried out by herdsmen, the same government was spontaneous in its reaction to the Zaki Biam killings carried out by yet-to-be known gunmen.VATIM called on government to desist from treating the issue of security of lives and property with kid gloves, pointing out that President Muhammadu Buharis alleged joke with Governor Samuel Ortom on Wednesday, 15th March 2017, during the National Economic Council meeting where while shaking hands with the governor, the president addressed him as permanent trouble is viewed with seriousness as a joke taken too far and, in fact, unacceptable.
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