Benue: APC under fire for criticising new security outfit

The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has frowned at the attack by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state against the recently-commissioned Benue Community Volunteer Guards (BCVGs).

The opposition party through its State Publicity Secretary totally condemned the BCVGs being commissioned by Governor Samuel Ortom as a security outfit because, according to them, previous such outfits in the state as the Vigilante Group and the Livestock Guards were not successful.

They also insisted the birthing of the new outfit in the build up to the 2023 elections and in the twilight of Governor Ortom in power is for it to be used to rig the coming polls, even as they questioned how it will be funded and logisticated now and post the Ortom era.

But reacting, the Benue PDP said it understands the apprehensions of its counterpart, APC, towards the BCVGs considering what the outfit represents to the opposition party and their sponsors within and outside of Benue.

Bemgba Iortyom, State Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state said Benue APC has been in the lead of absolving Fulani herdsmen of guilt for killings and sundry crimes in Benue, “propagating the false narrative that it is Benue people who are killing one another, even after the herdsmen, through groups such as Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, have accepted even at international press conferences responsibility for killings in Benue, including those of women and children.”

He said, “For the records, Benue PDP authoritatively avers that the commissioning of the BCVGs by Governor Samuel Ortom now represents the triumph of the will of the people of Benue State over their oppressors, being it the result of a painstaking process of recruitment of volunteers, their training, the sourcing of their primarily essential weapons, as well as navigating statutory recognition of the outfit through the bottlenecks imposed by the APC regime at the federal level.

“The other outfits targeted for denigration by the killer Fulani herdsmen political wing, namely Vigilante Group and the Livestock Guards all achieved the specific objectives for their creation, with the Livestock Guards sharing a larger part of the credit for the relative peace and existential space guaranteed the people in the geographical space of Benue to this day.

“PDP as the sponsoring platform of the Governor Ortom administration is satisfied that the recruiting/training, kitting/equipping as well as gazetting/unveiling of the BCVGs as a modification of the Vigilante Group represents the “triumph of hope over despondency, courage over intimidation, and above all, the will of the people over the tyranny of the oppressor.

“The BCVGs as a purely community security focused outfit has neither orientation nor inclination towards political interference of any form whatsoever, moreover, at this time of enhanced electoral reforms and voter awareness, it is myopic, cowardly and prematurely defeatist for the APC to insinuate such an outfit could have a role in the electoral process come 2023.

“Our great party luxuriates in the assurance that history has already inducted into its eternally hallowed chambers Samuel Ortom who by his courageous and selfless defense of his people stands among other heroes of the struggle for the upholding of the sanctity of human life and equality of man before one supreme God Almighty, and his bold initiative in the BCVGs will outlive his time in power, being it engraved for all times in the tablets of the hearts of all free people.”