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•Benue under siege, says PDP
From Scholastica Hir Makurdi
There is palpable fear in parts of Makurdi, the Benue State capital, yesterday, as suspected herdsmen reportedly attacked the Antsa community in Makurdi Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
Daily Sun gathered that 10 people were injured in the attack, which took place yesterday morning.
The Antsa community is located at about five kilometres to the the city centre, and lying along the busy road leading to the Alfred Akawe Torkula Polytechnic, Joseph Sawuan Tarka University Makurdi (JOSTUM), formerly Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi (FUAM), as well as a road Gbajimba and other communities in Guma LGA.
As of the time of filing this report, yesterday morning, youths had blocked the road for several hours to protest the herdsmen’s attack. A resident of the community, who identified himself simply as David, told newsmen that the herdsmen came around 1am and sliced their victims with machetes.
“They came in the night around 1am. The people said they were Fulani people that time, some people were still selling drinks outside and cooking Indomie. They used to close late. “When they came, they started slaughtering people. They sliced their bodies and they rushed them to the hospital. About six people had their bodies sliced. One had her finger cut and it was seen on the ground when they left.
“We also heard they went to Alfred Akawe Torkula Polytechnic to cut some people there. But when soldiers came that night and were shooting, they left. This morning the boys came out and blocked the road for hours and burnt tyres.
The Special Adviser to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Security and Internal Affairs, Chief Joseph Har PSP and the Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO) Benue State Command, SP Catherine Anene, have confirmed the attack. Anene said six people were injured and are currently receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has condemned the attack.
The PDP State Publicity Secretary, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, described the incident as “deeply saddening and regrettable, one which the party believes would not have occurred if the law banning open grazing in the state was still being enforced by Governor Hyacinth Alia.”
Antsa, a community within the vicinity of the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka Federal University of Agriculture and the Alfred Akawe Torkula Polytechnic, both in Makurdi, where students reside, were attacked early hours of yesterday. The state Police Command said six people were injured during the attack and were receiving treatment at the hospital.
Iortyom said: “PDP finds it inexplicable that Governor Alia has tacitly suspended the enforcement of the ban on open grazing in the state, which is still operative as a law, as doing so has directly resulted in the heavy influx of herdsmen and their cattle into both rural and urban areas of the state.
“The party is equally alarmed that, rather than work towards strengthening enforcement of the law, there had, only last week, emerged evidence that the governor had submitted a Bill before the Benue State House of Assembly, seeking to have the law repealed.”
While wondering in whose interest it would be to repeal the law, the party said “the governor’s policy of silence over the atrocities of the pastoralists is another source of deep worry, as it serves to cover the crimes they commit against humanity, while at the same time emboldening them as they see no wrong in their heinous crimes.
“It is alarming that suspected herdsmen can now strike and kill at will in Makurdi, the state capital city, a situation which loudly amplifies the grim fact that nowhere now in Benue State is safe under the watch of Governor Hyacinth Alia.”
PDP called on Governor Alia to come alive to the reality that Benue is under a siege, which is closing in by the day, and he should take advantage of the disposition of the federal government towards stamping out insecurity and flush the killer herdsmen out of the state.
