Concerned about renewed attacks on communities in Benue State, the House of Representatives yesterday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency, institute a Presidential Task Force to disarm all herdsmen in Buruku local government area of Benue State and the country at large.
It also resolved to set up a special ad hoc committee to engage heads of security agencies to give reasons why the attacks have persisted, and urged the National Emergency management Agency (NEMA) to send food and other relief materials to the affected communities.
These decisions were consequent on a motion sponsored by Hon Emmanuel Orker-Jev.
Debating the motion, Orker-Jev noted with dismay the massive and violent invasion of communities in Buruku on March 6, 2017, especially Binev council ward by “armed and strange herdsmen.”
He informed the House that the people of Buruku are largely farmers, fishermen and rural community people with simple and subsistence livelihoods and are dependent on the natural habitat in their communities.
Orker-Jev recalled that the herdsmen invaded the area Friday 10th March, creating fear and tension which forced residents of most communities in Binev to flee their homes. He said the herdsmen destroyed farms, plundered yam barns and looted houses deserted by the armless villagers, adding that on Saturday 11 March, the marauding herdsmen started indiscriminate attacks and killings of anybody they encountered around the communities of Ber Awuna, Dogo, Ortese–Mbashian, Tse Igyu, Tse Gebe, Anbighir, Tse Iwa, Gbaikyo, Agudu, Nyorum, Shonto and Abuku in three major kindreds of Mbade, Mbagoho, Mbashian, Mbaboor and Wuav.
