Benue Rescuers Network faults Tiv Youth Organization over comment on Akume, promise to hold Ortom responsible for any further attack

Being the Text of a Press Statement by the Benue Rescuers Network Over Sustained Attacks on Benue Leaders Using the Tiv Youth Organization.

Here is the excerpt of the response from Aondohemba Manasseh, the President Benue Rescuers Network to Tiv Youth Organization;

‘The Tiv Youth Organization has once again taken credit for one of the numerous government authored propaganda aimed at gaining political advantage from the unfortunate security situation in Benue State which has claimed many lives.

“We are saddened that those who parade themselves as leaders of this hitherto respected organization have so discredited this noble group through unwholesome activities including becoming a propaganda wing of the Benue State Government that Tiv Youth are now ashamed of its existence and no longer take serious, any communication purportedly emanating from the body.

“Our understanding of the role of the Tiv Youth Organization is for the mobilization of Tiv Youth to protect and defend the Tiv people from physical and intellectual aggression from external forces and not to mount propaganda for government or join in the peddling of falsehoods against Tiv prominent leaders.

“In its latest release tagged ‘Akume has Given Miyetti Allah Reasons to Attack Benue Again’, the group in apparent reference to the fallout of a recent presentation by Amnesty International predicted more attacks on the people of Benue State as has become the hallmark of the Ortom led administration.

“The Benue Rescuers Network is not taking this claims from the Tiv Youth Organization for granted considering the apparent interest of the Benue State Government in sustaining the herdsmen debate as a major tool to win public sympathy in place of the abysmal performance of governor Samuel Ortom.

“With the declining goodwill of the PDP and the Ortom led administration, we wish to state unequivocally that governor Samuel Ortom will have a difficult time extricating himself from direct blames should herdsmen attack Benue State again for volunteering media propaganda that seems to favor herdsmen attack in the state.

“While the Nigerian Army as a practical and major stakeholder in the security situation in the country has become wary of some international body’s involvement in the security situation in the country including Amnesty International, for allegedly serving as willing tools in the hands of terrorists, the Benue State Government which has abandoned its victims in IDPs camps in pursuit of political capital now
embraces every group in search of casualty figures to seek votes.

“The commander and members of the Livestock Guards have severally being arrested by the security agencies in connection with killings in the state. The state government’s best response to these arrests have been to deny members of the group who have been exposed by security agencies. The Tiv Youth Organization and Governor Samuel Ortom must be made to understand that peddling of falsehood against prominent Benue leaders and the denial of members of the Livestock Guards under arrest is not enough reasons to absolve the state government of complicity in the undermining of the state’s security by members of the state government funded security outfit (Livestock Guards)

“We call on the people of Benue State to be awake in view of the current predictions of herdsmen attacks by the Benue State Government and its numerous propaganda outfits including the Tiv Youth Organization. Benue can no longer condone any further attacks and killing of innocent citizens.

“We also call on the Tiv Youth Organization to rather prevail on the Benue State Government to emulate other state governments by resettling displaced persons in the state as has been done in Nassarawa and other neighboring States.” The added.