Leaders representing Benue State’s socio-cultural groups and tribal communities have unequivocally stated their opposition to any Federal Government initiative aimed at constructing houses and settlements for Fulani herdsmen within the state.
They assert that the recent swift announcement by the Federal Government to build 1,000 housing units across seven states, including Benue, raises suspicions and will not be accepted in their region.
In a statement issued over the weekend, jointly signed by the President General of Mzough U Tiv, MUT, (Worldwide) Iorbee Ihagh, and the President General of Ochetoha k’Idoma, OKI, AVM Toni Adokwu (retired), these leaders emphasized that no part of Benue State would be allocated for the establishment of housing or colonies to accommodate Fulani herders.
They underlined that this decision stands while over two million Benue indigenes, displaced by armed herders, continue to reside in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps dispersed throughout the state.
The leaders called upon the Federal Government to halt the project, which they claim is portrayed as part of a comprehensive strategy to address conflicts in the northern region of the country, offering facilities such as schools, clinics, veterinaries, and ranches for the Fulani community.
They stressed that “one would have thought that the construction of such a facility in Benue State will go through a process that would have the inputs of all stakeholders, particularly, the State Government, but the hasty manner with which the project was planned and subsequently approved, smacks of mischief.
“The signal we are getting is that the idea may have been conceived, hatched, packaged and handed over to the present administration for implementation; or how would one explain the hasty manner in which the project scaled through all the hurdles and even billed for implementation, without the State Government getting a whiff of the idea from its conception?
“But, be that as it may, one would have expected that the Federal Government should have settled the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the State before thinking of bringing in outsiders, nay, foreigners and creating a haven for them within the state.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Benue State has over two million IDPs that have been neglected by the government to perish in various IDP camps across the State.
“The first thing one would have expected was for the Federal Government to work towards ensuring that displaced persons that have been abandoned in IDP camps across the state are returned to their ancestral homes, before contemplating the construction of houses for their antagonists, the Fulani armed herdsmen.
“The ethnic groups in the state have resolved to file behind the State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, not to cede any portion of the State to anyone; not even the Federal Government for the purpose of building settlements for our oppressors.
“Plans to ensure that colonies must be constructed in Benue State has become a recurring decimal, and we view the insistence of the Federal Government to establish Colonies in the State, under whatever name is an agenda that must be resisted by the Benue people, with the support of all.
“Without mincing words, we want to tell President Bola Tinubu that he should call off the project, direct the relevant agencies of government to without delay commence a resettlement and rehabilitation process for IDPs in the state to return to their ancestral homes and further ensure that the IDPs are assisted to live normal lives before contemplating to embark on such a project.”
The leaders have alerted President Tinubu to the dire situation in Moon Council Ward of Kwande Local Government Area, where residents have been displaced and their homes taken over by armed herdsmen.
They passionately implore the Federal Government to promptly address this issue and endorse Benue State’s ranching law as a means to facilitate harmonious cohabitation between farmers and herdsmen within the state.
