Benue State government has insisted that there is a grand conspiracy by the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Defence against the people of the state.
The commissioner of Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja, made the remark while rejecting the call by the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to repeal the state Anti-Open grazing law implemented on November 1st, 2017.
Speaking at a press conference in Makurdi, the state capital, the Commissioner insisted that Benue State Anti-open grazing law remained the best solution to herdsmen killings in the state.
Onoja described the statements of the police boss, Ibrahim Idris and the Defence minister, Mansur Ali as highly provocative, insensitive and a complete violation of basic principles of natural justice.
He noted that the state had lost confidence and trust in the IGP and the Defence Minister over their handling of security issues in the state.
Onoja said, “We will not keep quiet till the killings are over, our people are being killed on the daily basis and they want us to fold our arms and keep and watch, except the perpetrators are brought to book we will not keep quiet and watch our people die like chicken and property worth over N100 billion destroy by this hoodlums.
“Benue State is not satisfy with the workings of the police in the state headed by the IGP, yes we can agree that there is heavy police presence in the state, but we will not be satisfy until those persistently issuing threat and ensuring that their threats are carryout are arrested and prosecuted, what we want the police to do is to put an end to this killings.
“The Benue State government hereby completely rejects the statement coming from the nation’s top Police officer who ought to have available records to confirm that there have been more than 47 armed attacks by suspected Fulani terrorists on Benue State before the enactment of the anti-open grazing law and some of these attacks were before governor Samuel Ortom came into office.
“We are calling on the federal government to as a matter of urgency relieve the IGP of his position as the country’s Police boss because, he has failed woefully in his duties especially as the two weeks ultimatum given to him by the Senate to apprehend the killer herdsmen has elapsed without any meaningful arrest of the culprits, but has rather resorted to unprofessionally trading blames, today he will say it is a communal clash, the next minute he will say is anti-open grazing law.
“We want to tell both the IGP and the minister of Defence that the Benue State House of Assembly has in the exercise of its constitutional power as provided in the 1999 constitution as amended that state Houses of Assembly may make laws for the state in respect to industrial, commercial or agricultural development, that was how the anti-open grazing law came into being and it followed due process, so no amount of threat will make the government think of repealing the law.”
Comments