Benue State governor Samuel Ortom has asked the federal government to suspend the conduct of National Population Census until all the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are returned to their ancestral homes if not, “I smell a hidden agenda in the whole exercise.”
This is even as the governor emphasised that if the IDPs are still in camp “it seems the proposed census is coming with an agenda.”
Governor Ortom made the call when he received a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum led by its president, Dr Bitrus Pogu at Government House Makurdi.
“Because from what I gathered from the National Population Commission is that those to be counted must be in their localities, so we have over two million indigenes of Benue State in the IDPs’ camps who would not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise, so this is unacceptable,” he said.
The governor stated that what the federal government must do before carrying out the census was to ensure adequate security for the IDPs in Benue and elsewhere in the country to go back to their homes to be counted.
“I want to say that the Federal Government should suspend the issue of census because it looks like the proposed census is coming with an agenda. So, until they are able to restore security and all our IDPs go back to their ancestral lands to give all of them opportunities to be counted in the homes of birth,” he said.
Governor Ortom lamented that at present, “there was so much injustice, bias and tribalism” going on in the country that both the leaders and the people were expected to correct it before the country could move forward.
He particularly decried the sustained attacks on Benue communities by herdsmen over the years in which more than 6,000 people have died and property worth billions of naira destroyed with the federal government doing little to help.
“In Benue State alone we have lost over 6,000 people. In the last few days alone, over 130 persons were killed and we are still counting because others are in the hospital.”
Governor Ortom however maintained that despite the unprovoked attacks and other injustices meted on the people of the state, “Benue people will remain law abiding citizens because they believe in Nigeria and have worked for the unity of the country.”
Earlier, the president of Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu also corroborated with the Governor Ortom, and urged the federal government to suspend the proposed national population census because he believed that the exercise “was coming with a hidden agenda, let the census start with the return of the IDPs which is more paramount.”
Pogu also frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen have been killing people of the Middle Belt in connivance with other Fulani socio-cultural groups like Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM, who are allegedly openly claiming responsibility without being arrested.
He said what has made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the Middle Belt more frightening is that after killing and displacing the villagers, “the Fulani came and renamed those villages.”
Pogu maintained that the people of the Middle Belt “will not cede land to anyone. No portion of our land will be ceded to anyone. It will not be allowed. That should not be allowed to happen. Our land is our heritage.”
The MBF president stated that for every one to have a sense of belonging, the Federal Government should move beyond mere “issuance of condolences messages” whenever people are killed and decisively deal with the killers and their sponsors.
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