ACF spokesman, Yawe on shameful mission; unsavory role to please our enemies – Benue govt

Benue State Government has slammed the spokesman for Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, for deliberately twisting the facts about attacks and killing of innocent people in Benue State by herdsmen.

The government was reacting to a statement by Yawe who had claimed that the killings in Benue have been carried out by people of the state against their kith and kin.

Yawe in the statement absolved armed herdsmen of all blames and guilt.

Reacting, however, Terver Akase, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Samuel Ortom stated that Yawe was apparently acting a script for a political melodrama of absurdity and sadism.

The statement reads below;

Yawe ought to have known that the pain Benue people have gone through since 2014 in the hands of armed Fulani militia is too excruciating to warrant space for derision of any tone.

He was on a shameful mission; an unsavory role to please enemies of Benue State and save his pay cheque. As a member of All Progressives Congress, APC, Emmauel Yawe’s desperate mission to change the narrative about the killings in Benue got the better of him. He couldn’t hide his motif and aggression. But Yawe surely didn’t speak for ACF. He only used the forum to throw unprovoked punches at Governor Samuel Ortom.

Emmanuel Yawe is from Taraba State. There is no ban on open grazing in that state, yet, Fulani militia kill many people in cold blood. The Arewa spokesman is curiously mute on atrocities committed by herdsmen in his state but has found Benue a fertile ground to plant his seeds of acridity.

In one breath, Yawe made an emotional defence for the killers of Benue people, and in another breath, wanted the world to behold his hatchet assignment as that of a man who is neutral and only wants to see the return of peace. He went to the extent of manufacturing a story of victims of attacks visiting ACF’s office to lodge complaints and blame the Ortom administration over the attacks. What a way to play politics with human lives!

The said ACF statement indicated that the man who issued it is not in touch with the reality of the situation in Benue State.

We are convinced that ACF did not approve of that statement. If it did, at least one paragraph would have been dedicated to expressing sympathies with victims of attacks on Benue communities. Yawe’s haste to castigate Governor Ortom and his administration further affirms the painful and torturous acts of those who are conspiring with enemies of Benue people to turn the state to a killing field. Such individuals have placed the state on the rack and are unleashing excruciating pain on its people.

Yawe appears to relish the sight of women giving birth in IDP camps with minimal medical attention and the plight of children who have no hope for the future. For him and others who reason like he does, as long as their bread gets buttered, the suffering Benue children in IDP camps must wail a little longer.

Contrary to his claim, the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law does not shield or give preferential treatment to members of Livestock Guards. No human organization is without bad eggs. The Benue State law clearly specifies punishment for violators of its provisions and Livestock Guards are not exempted. The law has stiff penalties on cattle rustling and some culprits have been arrested, taken to court and jailed.

However, the question to ask Yawe and others who indulge in blaming the victim is; does the fact that in some cases cows are rustled give Fulani herders the license to attack and kill human beings?

The only persons who have vowed never to obey the law are cattle herders. Fulani herdsmen have been colluding with some criminal elements in Benue State whom they sponsor to attack and kill innocent people of the state to actualize their conquest agenda. We expect the ACF mouthpiece to have known this.

Faulting the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law as source of the killings is only being uncharitable. His home state Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau and other parts of the country where herdsmen have slaughtered thousands of defenseless people do not have laws prohibiting open grazing of cattle.

We wish to urge ACF to call Emmauel Yawe to order. He is one of the crisis merchants who want the disintegration of this country and are doing everything to stir hatred among Nigerians.