The Benue House of Assembly, on Tuesday called for urgent action by the government to prevent a looming genocide on Nigerian soil.
In a motion moved by Peter Uche (APC/Guma I) during plenary in Makurdi, the lawmakers described the attacks on communities in Benue State as a replay of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
Uche pointed out that Section 14 (b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, provided that security of lives and properties should be the primary responsibility of the government.
He said the government seemed not to be meeting this responsibility as Benue people were daily being subjected to severe pains, displacement from their ancestral homes, wanton destruction of property, and heinous killings by terrorists for more than two decades.
He said the attention of the Nigerian government and the international community had been drawn to the attacks on many occasions through various media, but that the attacks had continued unabated.
He further stated that the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches (Establishment) Law, 2017, as amended, was duly passed by the Benue State House of Assembly as a measure to regulate animal husbandry in the state and put an end to the conflict between farmers and herders.
According to him, however, the attackers and their sponsors have rather chosen to breach the law and find excuses to perpetrate more killings of innocents.
Uche expressed deep pain over the recent attack on Yelwata community in Guma Local Government Area (LGA) of the state that claimed the lives of more than 200 people, many of them women and children.
According to the assemblyman, apart from the use of sophisticated weapons, including explosives, the marauding herdsmen used fuel to set homes ablaze, wiping out families of up to 10 members.
“I am deeply pained that women and children will be murdered in their sleep for no fault of theirs. Their only crime being their identity as crop farmers from Benue,” Uche said.
Alfred Berger (APC/Makurdi North) seconded the motion stating that the security agencies were not doing enough to protect the people, and called on both the state and federal governments to rise up to their duties securing the lives of citizens.
Meanwhile, Abu Umoru (PDP/Apa) called on Benue people, irrespective of their political affiliations, to come together and tackle the insecurity once and for all.
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Peter Ipusu (APC/Katsina-Ala West) corroborated Berger that security agencies were overwhelmed and seemed incapable of protecting the people, hence the call for unity in tackling the issue.
Ipusu called on Governor Hyacinth Alia to ensure that the law prohibiting open grazing was enforced.
He further appealed to the Commissioner of Police to release the protesters that were being detained, saying that they acted out of deep pains and frustration as a result of the Yelwata killings.
Ruling, the Speaker, Aondona Dajoh, appealed to President Bola Tinubu, to help the state enforce the law against open grazing with the use of the military and police.
Dajoh commended the youths who protested the killings, describing them as the heroes of democracy in Benue.
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