We’ll never forgive Akume, APC for insulting us – Benue IDPs

By Jerome Ukaa, in Daudu

Internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Benue State have vowed that they will never forgive the Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume and his aides for lying that he sent trucks loaded with relief materials to them.

The displaced people who are victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks in Benue State were reacting to the news report by the State Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, APC, Dan-Morgan Ihomun who claimed that Akume had sent some of his personal aides, Richard Agwa, Tyona Iortyom and Samson Tyotom to distribute food items and other relief materials the IDP camps.

The visibly angry IDPs told Akume and APC to desist from showing hatred towards them and mocking them with stories of relief materials which he has never donated to any of the camps.

The internally displaced persons who spoke to journalists yesterday expressed anger at the minister whom they accused of abandoning them since 2018 only to ask his aides to originate a fake media report about relief materials now that elections are approaching.

The Benue IDPs recalled amid tears, Akume’s words in 2019 that Benue people were the ones killing themselves and vowed that they will never forget those hurtful words which amounted to spitting on the graves of their loved ones.

It will be recalled that in September 2021, angry IDPs from Abagena camp, pelted Sen. Akume’s motorcade with stones and rotten tomatoes when he was arriving Makurdi from Abuja led on the journey by a detachment of heavily armed security men with armoured personnel carriers.

The IDPs cited intense anger and frustration as the reason why they pelted the motorcade of the minister with stones and rotten tomatoes.

Two of the IDPs who accepted to be quoted openly named Iorpenda Ubii and Caroline Akaazua, wondered why Senator Akume should turn against the people of the state by taking sides with those they described as sponsors of killer herdsmen.

They lamented that rather than Akume calling on the federal government to beef up security for the terrorised people of the state, they were shocked to see heavy security presence escorting the Minister to Makurdi without caring to stop over and say a word of greeting to them.

The displaced people expressed frustration at the failure of the Buhari administration to fulfill its promise made to them in 2019 through Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, that the sum of N10 billion was going to be made available for their return and rehabilitation in their homes.

They also expressed their annoyance with the federal government for failing to protect them from killer herdsmen who have slaughtered their loved ones and displaced them from their homes for about half a decade.