Ortom weeps as herders attack Benue IDP camp, kill seven

Arewa group says Buhari can’t handle insecurity

Not less than seven persons have been killed and many others injured as suspected armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Abagena community, Makurdi Local Council of Benue State.

This made Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue weep.

The Guardian gathered from some of the IDPs and locals that the herders, who stormed the camp around 2.00 a.m., shot sporadically, killing seven IDPs who were asleep.

Consequently, youths in the area, together with the IDPs, blocked the Makurdi–Lafia highway in protest with the bodies of the deceased.

One of the locals, who gave his name as Tersaa Agabee, told The Guardian that some of the IDPs, on hearing gunshots, ran into the bush to escape being killed by the marauding herdsmen.

Weeping as he addressed the protesters, Ortom described the attack as inhuman, barbaric, and unacceptable

He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his responsibility of protecting Nigerians.

His words: “The President must rise up to address this nation himself. My colleagues, the governors, must rise up also. The President calls a security summit and, if possible, declares a state of emergency on security in this country.

“It’s a shame that the President, who is the Chief Security Officer of this country, would give an order and another person would counter it. The President ordered that anybody seen with AK-47 should be shot on sight and the Chief of Army Staff said he would not do that.”

SIMILARLY, Arewa Defence League (ADL) has passed a vote of no confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, saying that Nigeria must be rescued from its hands before it collapses.

According to the northern group, the high level of insecurity across the country was an indication that the government had been overwhelmed by terrorism in the country.

The President of ADL, Alhaji Murtala Abubakar, stated in Kaduna yesterday: “My heart breaks a thousand times at the rate things keep degenerating retrogressively, to an extent that you never can tell who will be the next victim.”

Lamenting that Buhari failed to live to his constitutional responsibility of defending the country against terrorism and attacks by criminal elements in the country, he said “whether civilian or law enforcement agent, you can fall victim.”