FG to rebuild ravaged communities, resettle victims in Nasarawa, others

Gov deplores bearing of arms by herders

The Federal Government is to rebuild communities ravaged by herdsmen and return displaced indigenes to their homes, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.During an on-the-spot assessment visit yesterday to camps of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Awe, Obi and Keana council areas of Nasarawa State, the Vice President said he would be meeting with the governors of Benue and Nasarawa states along with their security councils to ensure that peace returns to the troubled zones.

“Although the problem has been age-long, but it must end one day and by the grace of God, this will come to an end now,” he stated.Osinbajo assured the displaced that the current administration would ensure their safe resettlement.He said: “The reason we are meeting today (yesterday) is to look at how you will return home and be settled in safety.

“I know that being in an IDP camp is not good for anybody at all, children have to go to school, adults have to go to their farms and others to their trades and it is our duty as a government to make sure that everyone is safe to do their work in peace and comfort.”

The Vice President, who felt the hardship of the inmates, said government had taken measures to ensure their comfort.He went on: “I came here with the Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Executive Secretary of the refugee commission to ensure that in the next few days, more relief materials are provided to cushion your plight.

“The DG of NEMA has just informed me that some of the relief materials are already in Lafia for onward transportation to the various camps.”Osinbajo reiterated that government would rehabilitate the IDPs, rebuild their homes as well as revitalise their destroyed farms and trades.

In his remarks, Governor Umaru Al-Makura expressed worry over the arm-bearing disposition of the herders.He said the current crisis, which has led to the displacement of over 25,000 persons in the state alone, was a fall-out of the implementation of the anti-open grazing law by the Benue government.

The governor submitted that his administration has been working round the clock with security agencies and other stakeholder to return peace to the affected communities.Al-Makura noted that besides the provision of relief materials, the victims urgently needed security to enable them return to their homes.

His words: “The IDPs’ main worry is to ensure that their villages are safe to enable them return.“We have created about seven bases located across the clusters of the IDPs in the state to provide security. But the personnel to man them are grossly inadequate.”

However, the visit of the Vice Present has been greeted by a fresh killing of a Tiv man, Mr. Felix Ategbo, at Ukpojugu, Azara Development Area in Awe Local Council of the state.Youth President of the Tiv Youths Organisation, Comrade Benjamin Nyitamen, told newsmen yesterday in Lafia that the deceased was killed on Tuesday in his farm around 2:00p.m.