From John Adams, Minna
Worried by the spate of killings and kidnappings in parts of Benue State, youth association under the auspecies of Edumoga Youth Association (EYA) has threatened to embark on a mass protest in the state to demand an end to the wave of killings and abductions of innocent citizens across the state.
The youths said the situation is gradually pushing the people to where they would have no other option than to result to self defense, since it appeared that the government was helpless and could no longer protect the people.
EYA in a statement by its National President, Alhaji Lucky Itodo yesterday condemned the Sunday evening attack on the state owned transport authority, Benue link by suspected kidnappers along Otukpo-Otukpa highway in Okpokwu local government area.
The 18 passengers on board the bus were robbed and taken away by their attacks. The government is loosing grip of the security challenges.
“The security situation in parts of Benue state has deteriorated so fast that no place is safe for the people. It is either they (gunmen) follow you to the house or wait for you on the highway to be kidnapped.
“We will no longer fold our hands and watch our people being whipped out or forced into abject poverty through random payment with no help coming from the government.”
According to him, it is an under statement to say that the entire state is currently under siege from gunmen as blood continue to flow freely and millions paid by families of kidnapped victims to secure the release of their love ones from kidnappers.
He pointed out that kidnappers have found safe heaven in Otukpo and other parts of Benue South ,where they kidnapped, raped and kill the people without resistance from any quota, warning that, “we have seen enough of these criminalities and we can’t take it any longer”.
The association recalled that this year alone, there have been well over 100 reported cases of kidnapping across the state, while hundreds of innocent Benue citizens have been gruesomely murdered by invaders suspected to be heardsmen p.
The youth association expressed regrets that from all indications, the people seemed to have been abandoned by their political leaders and “are now living like sheep without Shepherd”, adding that the political leadership in the state must wake up to its responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of the people.
While calling on the security agents to immediately rescue the victims of Sunday evening kidnap along Otukpo-Otukpa highway unhurt, the youth association urged local Vigilantes in the area to brace up for the challenges posed by “these enemies of the people.”
Meanwhile barely 24 after the abduction of the Benue link passengers, the abductors are- yet- to make any contact with the families of the victims even as security agents in collaboration with the locals were still combing the bush for their possible rescue.