Benue youths in their thousands matched round major streets of Makurdi yesterday to protest against the move to militarise the state in the coming Governorship and State Assembly elections.
The youths carried placards, some of which read “we say no to the militarization of Benue”, where was the military when our people were butchered by armed herdsmen”, “don’t use the military to rig Benue elections”, APC doesn’t drag the military into politics”.
The founding member of the Movement Against Fulani Occupation, MAFO, Pastor Dave Ogbole who spoke on behalf of the youths said that they were aware of the plot to send top military personnel for the coming Saturday election.
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Pastor Ogbole said, “when the people of our state were subjected to unimaginable trauma occasioned by ceaseless killings and sacking of Benue communities by armed herdsmen, those now calling for the military for election purposes failed to impress on the federal government to deploy the military to stem the killings.
“Therefore their request for the deployment of the military for election purposes is suspicious and of course intended to strangulate our people and rig Saturday’s election and Benue youths say no to the plot.”
Receiving the youths in government house, the state governor, Samuel Ortom noted that over the years elections in the state had always been peaceful.
The governor said that it was already known that the APC in the state had been depleted due to in-fighting.
“All we demand is a level playing field for all the parties, we are going into the elections prepared it is not a do or die matter because we know and they also know that Benue is PDP and the people will resist any attempt to subvert the process,” Ortom said.
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