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From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue State has kicked against the inclusion of Benue in the federal government’s planned Fulani colonies in the country.
The party has therefore asked the state Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, to remove Benue from the list saying such moves portend danger and darkness for the people of the state.
The PDP made this demand in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Monday.
The party said, “It is no longer news that the All Progressives Congress (APC) controlled administration of President Bola Tinubu has earmarked Benue as one among a few states where a federal government-sponsored settlement for Fulani herdsmen is to be established.
According to the statement, Vice President Kashim Shettima disclosed at a public function in Maiduguri last week that President Tinubu has approved the construction of 1,000 houses in Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and Benue states with all the ancillary facilities of schools, clinics, veterinary clinics and ranches for the Fulani community.
The establishment of those Fulani colonies, according to VP Shettima, is “part of a broad plan by the Federal Government to address the conflict in the north”.
The PDP which insisted that said that there is more darkness than light surrounding this planned Fulani community in the state, explained that Firstly, the absence of a peer-to-peer basis for the inclusion of Benue among the other selected states which all have large indigenous Fulani populations with substantial land holdings on which such colonies could be sited, while Benue does not have such a situation.
“In other words in those other states, it could be natural to have such colonies where a Fulani population is already in situ and which would seamlessly be accommodated therein.
“Benue has no such indigenous Fulani population with land holdings where such a colony could be established.”
The PDP further argued that “it is unjust and ultimately insensitive to have a colony established for the Fulani with all the facilities for modern living in a state where victims of the genocidal atrocities committed by those same Fulani are still displaced from their lands and means of livelihood and living in sub-human conditions in camps which bear semblance to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during 2nd World War.”
PDP recalled that in May 2018, then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo visited Benue and made a commitment on behalf of the Buhari administration to resettle those displaced back to their lands and also made a pledge of 10 billion to them.
“That promise by VP Osinbajo has not been fulfilled to this moment and the displaced persons in the IDP camps are still even to date being attacked and killed by Fulani herdsmen right there in the camps and dare not venture near their plundered and desolate ancestral lands to scavenge for food.
“It is inhuman to even contemplate settling those oppressors in comfort while their victims are languishing in hellish conditions, and this amounts to thumbing-up criminality while rubbing the nose of the victim into his blood spilt by the oppressor.”
PDP alleged that it was Governor Hyacinth Alia who had put Benue on the said list of Fulani colonisation in order to fulfil promises he made to Fulani lobby groups to accommodate herdsmen in the state in return for their support and sponsorship during his campaigns at the last elections.
“PDP, therefore, demands that Governor Alia should, with dispatch, remove Benue from that list of colonisation, as the people of the state across all sections, the traditional leadership, religious organizations, civil society, institutions of representative leadership, had all during the Buhari administration clearly rejected such attempts to have herdsmen colonies in the state.”
The party recalled that Benue had vehemently rejected Ruga, the Water Resources Bill, Cattle Colony, Grazing Routes and every other form of Fulani colonisation efforts as were made in the past saying the situation has not changed.
“Benue does not need a Fulani colony, what the state needs is Governor Alia’s fulfilment of his promises to IDPs to resettle them back on their ancestral lands.
The PDP statement said Benue will resist with all means lawfully available to its people attempts by Governor Alia and his allies in Abuja to settle Fulani herdsmen on lands they displaced the people from through killings and plunder.
The party said as reflected in the principle driving the Prohibition of Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law, Fulani is permitted to live and do lawful business in the state but stated that such policies will negate the principle of peaceful coexistence will be resisted by the people.
The party urged the governor to be aware of the serious nature of the matter and that he cannot afford to dismiss it and have a Fulani colony established on any inch of Benue soil.
