The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has called on the Federal Government to put a permanent stop to the killings in Benue State by herdsmen.
According to him, what is happening in Benue and other middle-belt states is more than a clash between herdsmen and local farmers, as it has got to the level of terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
“Just now, we heard the news of the herdsmen attacking the camp of mobile policemen, Mopol 13 in Benue, killing two officers by slitting their throats. Do you call people, who could invade the camp of mobile policemen in a guerrilla manner and overpower armed Mopol, mere Fulani herdsmen?” the governor asked.
Fayose, who sympathised with the government and people of Benue State for the murder of 71 people last week by herdsmen, said President Muhammadu Buhari must take decisive steps to stop “an attempt to wipe out the Agatu and Tiv people of Benue State from the face of the earth.”
According to a statement on Tuesday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Fayose also berated the likes of former President Olusegun Obasanjo for keeping silent while thousands of Nigerians were being killed by herdsmen.
He urged all men of good conscience in the country to rise in condemnation of the nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government on the herdsmen’s criminal activities.
Fayose added, “Nigerians are gradually beginning to see these killings as a case of hand of Esau, voice of Jacob. It is man’s inhumanity to man, clear cruelty and is unacceptable.
“What is happening in Benue and other states in the North-Central is an issue on which President Buhari must have to take decisive steps. We never had killings like these under previous administrations. It is one killing too many!”
The governor stated that no one could deny the fact that the Fulani herdsmen had become a nightmare to Nigerians.
He said, “On the Global Terrorism Index, Fulani militant group (herdsmen) operating in Nigeria and parts of the Central African Republic is the fourth deadliest known terrorist group.
“A group declared as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world as far back as 2015 cannot be handled with levity by the Federal Government as being done presently and the earlier President Buhari is made to realise that his main duty is to protect the lives of all Nigerians, the better.”
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra has told the people of Benue State to defend themselves against incessant attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
Reacting to the situation on Tuesday, MASSOB, in a statement by its National Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, said the people of Benue State must defend themselves.
MASSOB, in the same vein, urged other ethnic nationalities in the country to be ‘vigilant.’
