Aftermath Buhari’s visit: Nothing has changed, killings still on —Benue residents

We thought that the visit of President Muhammadu Buhari would instantly bring an end  to the senseless killings by Fulani herdsmen in our state, but the killings of a Catholic catechist and two brothers barely 24 hours after his visit has clearly shown that end to these  attacks may not be in sight.”

This was the lamentation of  Mr Apiah Jonah who hails from the troubled Guma Local Government Area of the state. Communities in this council area and Logo council had since the commencement of this year faced the challenges of herdsmen attacks leading to the death of many people. Recently, the attack spread to Okpokwu in the southern senatorial district of the state where 26 persons were killed.

According to the state governor, Samuel Ortom during the visit of the President, he had hinted that no fewer than one hindered and sixty-four (164) persons have died since the attack on the state started on New Year day.

In the breakdown, the governor had said that sixty-five persons  (65) had also lost their lives after the mass burial of the 73 victims of the herdsmen attacks on Guma and Logo local government areas.

He added that twenty-six persons (26) were also killed at the sleepy Omusu Edimoga village in Okpokwu Local Government Area of the state.

The victims of Okpokwu attack were buried on Thursday three days after the visit of President Buhari.

Incidentally, Guma which serves as headquarters of the military troops deployed to the state known as Exercise Cat Race and popularly known as ‘Ayem a Kpatuma’ continues to witness herdsmen attacks even few hours after President Buhari left the state.

But rather than the crisis to abate, it increased on daily basis, hardly could a day pass by without report of killing from this local government.

Less than 24 hours before the visit of the president, precisely, Sunday, around 2 p.m. two mobile policemen were killed by the suspected herdsmen while on confidence-building patrol at Orogbo village in Guma local governments area. According to the police in the state, the killers escaped into the forest as soon as they killed the policemen.

Regrettably, less than 24 hours after the visit of the president,  the same Orogbo and other communities all in Guma were attacked by suspected herdsmen where a Catholic catechist and two brothers were killed.

Findings revealed that the catechist was at a retreat at his village and had excused himself to pick some documents from home. He was said to have taken a footpath along with a relative when the marauders who had laid ambush killed him while his relative escaped.

The news of the attack, according to locals, threw the retreat into disarray as everyone scampered for safety.

The two brothers killed by the herdsmen were said to be returning from the market at Yelewata when they ran into the Fulani herdsmen roadblock  around 8 p.m on the same day.

The continuous attack on the state after the visit of the president has raised posers, as people who volunteered to speak on it have condemned it while others advised that the people of the state should not fold their arms and watched the continuous killings of innocent people.

President General Mdzouh U Tiv, Chief Edward Ujege expressed sadness over the ongoing killings in the state despite the visit of the president and stated that his noncommitanc was visible during his speech.

According to him, “We had expected that when he stood up, he would at least console us for the number of people killed which is over 2,000 and even far more. We also have close to 170,000 people in the eight Internally Displaced Persons’ camps in the state at the moment. Our children are not going to school anymore. All sorts of things are happening to us as a people presently.

“We were expectant that a father had come to make pronouncements that would give us relief, but he said nothing to that effect. In fact he spoke for around three to five minutes which was an anticlimax because he didn’t comment on the people killed.

“For instance, in America when such things happen the President is there almost immediately to console and identify with the people. But he didn’t identify with us. We expected that he would make a pronouncement or give us hope that he would compensate and give relief to the IDPs. We didn’t hear anything of sort.”

The president general, Tiv Youth Organization, Comrade Timothy Hembaor while reacting  to the ongoing killings in the state despite the visit of President Buhari said,  “it has become  imperative  for the mind of the Tiv youths and indeed, the entire Benue people that the Fulani  militia have been properly coordinated and adequately mobilised  under the support of the president  to attack, kill in cold blood and take over Benue State in ethnic cleansing.”

Hembaor who said that his association saw the signal that the president, if he had wanted the killing to stop, would have responded fiercely and condemned in its entirety during his visit, especially after the state governor Samuel Ortom reeled out the massacre wreaked on the state since the beginning of the year.

“Despite the fact that governor Ortom highlighted the casualties recorded since the crisis started on the new year day with 164 people killed without provocation, President Buhari saw no reason to console or sympathize with the people of Benue over these gruesome occurrences, a clear indication that he sees everything right with his Fulani kinsmen maiming innocent citizens of Benue, the killings which is still going on days after his departure.”

Hembaor further said that Benue people expected that as a concerned president who values lives and property of his citizens  would have ordered the immediate arrest of leaders of Miyeitti Allah; the government and leaders of Benue earlier accused them of threatening and carrying out their threats on Benue people.

Comrade George Abor, an analyst in the state, argued that he had prayed against more fierce battle after the president’s visit to Benue, drawing analogy from Plateau experience. Abor said, “when the visit of the president to Benue filtered in, I went down on my kneels, prayed to God that his visit should not give the marauders more courage to attack the state.

“We are all witnesses to the happenings in Plateau. Few hours after he left the state, the Fulani marauders have gone fiercer than before his visit. We have a president who is not concerned about the people who voted him into office.

“He came to Benue, did not bother to condole the people rather he was advising us to learn to accommodate the herdsmen. He did not rebuke the attackers, it was an insult to us.”

Also commenting, Pastor Ubanga  Adayi expressed faith in God that the challenges posed by Fulani marauders would soon be a thing of the past, as according to him, “there is light at the end of the tunnel. People of Benue will laugh last, I see that the Pharaoh that troubles  Benue will soon be consumed.”

He called on the people of the state to get closer to God and prayed thus, ‘that pharaoh you see, very soon, Benue shall see him no more.”

As the killings continue and the dead are being buried, the chief press secretary to the state governor, Terver Akase  submitted  on his timeline as victims of Okpokwu are laid to rest on Thursday, that ‘the only befitting wreath we can lay on the tombs of our loved ones killed by armed herdsmen is preservation of this land handed to us by our forefathers, the storm will soon be over’.