Benue killings: APC chieftain backs Tinubu’s peace initiative

A former member of the House of Representatives, Hon Bamidele Faparusi, has declared support for the peace initiative mulled by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find enduring elixirs to the persistent killings in Benue State.

Faparusi, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, said the senseless carnage being committed by those pursuing alleged land grabbing in Benue was sending a signal of gloom and depression across the nation.

However, the former Commissioner for Public Utilities opined that the pursuit of peace initiative in Benue by the presidency through an expanded committee that will be constituted by the federal government shouldn’t be an immunity for the killers to go scot-free.

President Tinubu had, on Wednesday, during his visit to Benue to condole with people in respect of the Yelwata massacre, widely taken as a signal of pogrom, mooted the constitution of an expanded committee of stakeholders to mediate between land owners and herders.

Responding to the truce being mulled by the presidency, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, Faparusi commiserated with the victims and called on Governor Hyacinth Alia to rev up the pedal of security in the state to dislodge the marauding bandits.

The former federal lawmaker described the persistent killings in Benue as painful and excruciating, saying the recent one in Yelwata created the impression that the country was no longer safe for the citizens.

Faparusi said that though he quite appreciated the fact that peace building was necessary to achieve safety in Benue, but was emphatic that the federal government must wield the big stick against the perpetrators of the carnage to send a signal that Nigeria is a serious-minded nation.

He appealed to the combined security forces to initiate a synergy that will upscale intelligence gathering, describing this as part of the measures to rid Benue of killers.

“Yes, peace effort is commendable, but those that perpetrated the atrocities should be brought to justice. Seeking peace should not mean immunity for criminals.

“The state should declare the atrocity terrorist act and exert the full weight of the military capacity to track them down and bring them all to justice, else, it will be taken that Nigeria has become a banana republic.

“The federal government should declare war on these blood suckers and eliminate their threats, while building peace within the communities is being pursued on the other hand.

“This is the best way to show that our country is serious in its fight against insurgency and banditry,” he said.

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