From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
The Association of Igbo Town Unions (ASITU) has described the killing of over 200 people in a single night in Benue State as ‘genocide unfolding in real time’ and demanded urgent national legislation to outlaw open grazing across Nigeria.
In a statement by its National President, Chief Emeka Diwe, the pan-Igbo grassroots body said it was outraged, grief-stricken and deeply alarmed by the massacre, which witness accounts have attributed to armed Fulani militia posing as herdsmen.
Part of the statement read: “These invaders, heavily armed and organised, descended upon the community and unleashed carnage that has left families destroyed, hopes shattered and the entire nation horrified. This is not just a tragedy; it is genocide unfolding in real-time.
“Benue State is home to not only the Tiv and Idoma people but also to significant indigenous Igbo populations, who have, over time, found community, livelihood and cultural belonging in that region.
“The pain of this atrocity reverberates across Igbo land, and it is felt deeply by all the town unions under ASITU. We mourn with our Benue brothers and sisters and we say, “Enough is Enough.”
The group accused the Nigerian government of long-standing inaction, saying it had repeatedly ignored the dangers posed by open grazing and the violence tied to it.
It also demanded the passage of a national law that criminalises open grazing without exception and prescribes harsh penalties.
“These atrocities are not mere acts of criminality. They are ideological, systematic and coordinated. Communities are being overrun. Indigenous populations are being displaced. Farmlands are being seized. And now, entire villages are being erased. What more evidence do we need to accept that Nigeria is at war within itself, and that the enemy hides in plain sight?
“ASITU, therefore, condemns these genocidal killings and demands urgent and uncompromising action. The Federal Government can no longer maintain its complicit silence. The blood of the people is crying from the ground, and history will not be kind on a political leadership that keeps mum while citizens are butchered and roasted like animals.
“ASITU demands the immediate passage of a federal legislation criminalising and totally proscribing open grazing across the entire country, without exception. This law must carry the harshest penalty possible.
“For a country whose unity is under threat, anything short of capital punishment for violators of such a law will be grossly insufficient. Open grazing is not only a security threat, it is also an existential one.
“ASITU calls for the immediate decentralisation of powers to enable the establishment of community-based, endogenous and people-oriented state police across the federation.
“Without local control over security, no community can truly defend itself. Nigeria cannot continue to operate a unitary security architecture in a multi-ethnic, deeply diverse and increasingly volatile federation.
“ASITU stands in solidarity with the people of Benue State and all communities across Nigeria that have suffered under the barbarism of unprovoked violence.”