Herdsmen have turned Benue to killing field —Youths

The Benue Youth Forum, BYF, has raised concern over the recent statement credited to the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MAKH, a Fulani sociocultural association.

The BYF said it is saddened by the content of the communique issued at the end of the expanded National Executive Committee, NEC and State Chairmen meeting of MAKH where they lashed Governor Samuel Ortom saying “the meeting condemned the continuous profiling of Fulani pastoralists by the beleaguered Governor of Benue Samuel Ortom through his satanic anti-grazing law that he has been using to officially confiscate and auction millions of cattle belonging to Fulanis in Benue- Nasarawa, Benue, and Benue-Taraba border communities.”

But reacting yesterday in Makurdi, the National President of BYF, Terrence Kuanum said, “it is indeed shocking that the apex socio-cultural body of Fulani ethnic nationality who have variously taken responsibility for the genocide in Benue after openly declaring war on the people because of the promulgation and implementation of the Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law of the state are now the ones crying blue murder.

“That the group accused Governor Ortom of confiscating cattle belonging to Fulanis in Benue’s borders with Nasarawa and Taraba states when of a truth, the Fulanis are the once unleashing terror on the people in a bid to take over their lands is another irony.

“They have no moral rights to question the anti-grazing law of the Benue state government, especially as they are known for their penchant for breaking laws because they enjoy the backing of high-profile politicians particularly those of Fulani extraction.”

“They also need to know that there is nothing as retrogressing as calling for the development of 415 grazing reserves in the country as nations desirous of developing have moved past archaic and anti-development processes and patterns such as the ones the Fulanis are calling for.

While cautioning that Fulanis should not think that Nigeria belongs to them, the BYF also “condemned in totality recent comments by former Bauchi state governor, Isa Yuguda in which he alleged that Governor Ortom made a law to chase Fulani herdsmen out of Benue.”