Benue killings: Akume under fire

The visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja last Friday by Senator George Akume and his small band of APC supporters has rightly attracted negative reviews. That visit and his pronouncements further reinforced the view that the Senator who leads the APC in Benue State has become an obvious embarrasment as well as ill wind that will ultimately blow no one any good. Even those he seeks to impress at the expense of the people of the state will no doubt, sooner than later, realize that he has no positive value.

The infamous jamboree came a day after Senator Akume’s rebuke by the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, Senator Abdullahi Danbaba, at plenary, for dereliction of duty as committee chairman. That Senator Akume was not present when the massive loss of Nigerian soldiers a few days back, many Benue indigenes including those from his constituency, to the Boko Haram terrorists in Borno State was being discussed speaks volumes about how he values his core mandate. He would rather lead a delegation of political jobbers in a groveling visit to the Villa rather than concern himself with unraveling the circumstances surrounding the massacre of Nigerian troops. We are not surprised that his vice chairman came to the floor of the Senate to say his Committee is suffering from a leadership deficit due to the perpetual absence and lack of commitment from the Chairman of the Committee.

The nationwide outrage that followed Senator Akume’s irresponsible pronouncements accusing the Benue State Government of sponsoring the genocide in the Benue Valley confirms the view that he is the arrowhead of the vast internal sabotage network working against the interests of the people. A few days back, Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, made a similar baseless and reckless claim on Channels Television even as the APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole sang the same song few months earlier. It is a clear case of blaming the victim.

It is now apparent that the changing narrative on the Benue massacre as well as conquest and occupation agenda is the fabrication of Senator Akume who is also its chief marker and promoter.
Yet, we wonder what kind of logic exists in the Senator and his co-travelers’ worldview that a Government popularly elected by the people for their protection and preservation will turn round to arrange the mass murder of the same people. Not even the open admission of responsibility for the killings by several Fulani groups including the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and the Fulani Nationality Movement has persuaded the renegade Senator to tone down on his toxic rhetorics.

On Tuesday, 30th May, 2017, the leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore addressed a press conference in Abuja stating that the crisis in Benue State is a struggle for the natural resources of Benue and that they would mobilize their kith and kin to invade the state and resist the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017. Barely 48 hours after the mass burial of 73 victims of the recent herdsmen attacks in Benue, the National Vice President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Herders Association, Husaini Yusuf Bosso, warned that more blood will be shed in the state if the anti-grazing law introduced by Governor Samuel Ortom is not completely scrapped. Other Fulani leaders including Garus Gololo claimed responsibility for the Benue attacks and killings citing justification for rustled cattle. The Fulani Nationality Movement met in Kano and issued a statement that the Benue attacks were a continuation of the 1804 Jihad. The police also arrested some of the leaders of Fulani herdsmen who attacked and killed people in Benue State, including police officers in Keana, Awe local government area of Nasarawa State.

Unfortunately for the APC stalwarts, investigations and interviews conducted by reputable media organizations revealed without any doubts that the attackers and killers in Benue State are Fulani herdsmen militia out on a conquest and occupation agenda of the Benue Valley and other territories in Nigeria.
Two of these organizations, Al Jazeera and Television Continental, TVC, aired their findings on their respective stations on May 7 and August 20, 2018. The footages can still be found on YouTube.

These investigations and testimonies of the victims and witnesses debunk the statements regarding the new and false narratives on the Benue Killings and render them as fabrications, reckless, mindless and a shameful dance on the graves of the victims.

Several questions came to mind when one listened to Senator Akume’s baseless and mischievous allegations. Is it the Benue State Government that is responsible for the killings in Zamfara, Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, Katsina, Kogi, Edo, Ekiti, etc? Has he forgotten that the same Miyetti Allah came out boldly in the media to claim responsibility because according to them, their cows were killed? Has he forgotten that the Minister of Defence also justified the killings by the Fulani herdsmen on the ground that their grazing routes were blocked? Or the justification by the Inspector General of Police that the anti-open grazing law was irresponsible?

It is also on record that more than 50 attacks on communities across the state were recorded from 2013 to 2017 before the enactment of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017 which created the Livestock Guards to assist in implementation. Would Senator Akume say the Livestock Guards were also responsible for the herdsmen attacks in his Tarka local government area in April, 2016 including the abduction and killing of the APC local government youth leader, the late Aondohemba Kasar? If indeed the Guards were responsible, why did the security agencies not charge to court, the former Livestock Guards commander, Alhaji Aliyu Tershaku, who they detained for several months? Could this imply that there is something to hide from his openly stated links with the current Inspector General of Police and the National Security Adviser which he disclosed when President Muhammadu Buhari visited Benue on March 12, 2018?

What Senator Akume didn’t tell his hosts is that Benue people are poised to open a new chapter in their political development devoid of devilish tendencies and negative whimsical impositions. The people are tired of a leadership that has consistently held the state down since 1999. Through the visionary leadership provided by Governor Samuel Ortom, the people have now seen that development can only take place when the purse of the State is extricated from a desperate self serving oligarchy who believe only in themselves well above the interest of the rest of the State. Senator Akume’s criticism of Governor Ortom over non-performance and non-payment of salaries is self-serving. When the Governor was in APC, the same Senator took pains to explain the salary payment challenge and even sponsored his endorsement as the sole governorship candidate of the party for 2019.

That there has been regular payment of salaries in 2018 which Senator Akume seems to be unhappy about is a pointer to the progress we have made since the joyful political divorce from the self-serving Senator. Moreover, there has been massive investment in people oriented projects in education, health, agriculture, security and infrastructure which marks Governor Ortom out as a defender of his people as against the lies peddled in Abuja.

The notion that the bailout of N28 billion other federal government interventions have been enough to tackle all salary and pension challenges in Benue State is also misleading. Arrears of salaries and pensions which Governor Ortom inherited were over N69 billion and the interventions, much as they are appreciated, fell short of the amount.

While Senator Akume has the right to paint a fictitious political picture to impress his hosts, the reality in the State is that he has presided over the steady erosion of whatever goodwill that is left of APC. His undemocratic posture has seen the APC witness a mass exodus, leaving behind an empty shell of a party as Nigerians will soon find out.

The conduct of Senator Akume and those who followed him to denigrate their State in Abuja will be recorded as a sore point in the development of our polity. This action must be recorded for posterity so that generations yet unborn will know that a time in our entire existence as a people was threatened and some of our people turned against us for the realization of their narrow interests.

In spite of this calculated action to intimidate the State Government, we shall never relent with our voices, sweat and blood to stand as pillars in the defense of our people. We are prepared to go the extra mile to ensure that our people live in peace, security and dignity. For those who see the misfortunes of our people as a window to curry personal favours, we wish to remind them that long after the temporary benefits they will get have been exhausted, our dear State Benue shall remain and be governed by those freely chosen by our People.

Tahav Agerzua
Special Adviser on Media and ICT.