Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has disclosed that from 2015 to date, 5,138 farmers have been killed by suspected herdsmen attacks across the state.
The executive secretary of SEMA, Dr Emmanuel Shior who disclosed this in Makurdi while briefing journalists on the update of humanitarian crises in Benue also informed that following the recent simultaneous attacks by the herdsmen in four local government areas of Gwer-West, Agatu Kwande Logo and Makurdi where over 50 farmers were killed, the State has over two million IDPs.
Giving a yearly breakdown of the killings in the , Dr. Shior said in 2015 alone 1,177 farmers were killed, 2016, 809 farmers were killed, 2017, 43 farmers were killed, 2018, 440 farmers were killed 2019,174 farmers were killed, 2020,88 farmers were killed, while in 2021 the number of killings skyrocket to 2131, 2022, 172 farmers were killed 2023, January to date 104 farmers were killed bringing to total deaths recorded since inception of this administration to 5138.
He maintained that 18 of the 23 local government areas of the state are under siege.
According to Shior, “Some of the deaths whose information were not reported were not recorded describing the killings as eight years genocide on Benue people, adding that that is why Governor Samuel Ortom, in a collective decision with the Benue people to address this concern, put in place the 2017 Anti-open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law which is a win-win Law aimed at putting to rest the incessant attacks and killing of farmers and cow rustling.
Shior also accused the federal government of neglecting the humanitarian crises in Benue where the IDPs have stayed in the camps for over five years, saying most IDPs if not all voted for president Muhammadu Buhari and leaving them for the state government to handle their plight is huge burden which the state government has been grappling with.
While commending the humanitarian agencies and the Church in the state for their measures to ensure the health and wellbeing of the displaced farmers, Shior also applauded the security agencies for their proactive measures to ensure peace in the State even as he expressed sadness that most of them paid the supreme price of losing their lives in trying to maintain peace and pray to God to console their families.
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