The Benue State Government has expressed sadness over what it described as
the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari to act in areas it least
expected him to. This is coming three days after the president
visited the State. It also noted that his visit did not rekindle any
hope in the people.
The Special Adviser to Governor Samuel Ortom
on Media and ICT, Mr Tahaz Agerzua, stated said on Thursday during his
appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“We appreciate the visit, but we didn’t get any hope.
“In Benue State, the President did not condole with us.
“We
appreciate that he was able to take his time and come and sit down for
several hours to listen to the stakeholders, but he did not sympathise
with the families.
“What we expected from the President was to
give us assurance that the invaders would be chased out; there are
presently 170,000 displaced people in eight counts across the state,
that is a huge humanitarian crisis.
“We thought that there would
be some word of chasing these people so that the displaced can return to
their houses,” the governor’s aide said.
He further dismissed
claims that the state government had sent the herdsmen parking from the
state, in retaliation for the reported killings.
Ortom’s adviser,
however, maintained that the status of the grazing law remains the same
while the herdsmen are advised to abide by it.
According to him,
the move s to avoid cattle from further destroying farm produce that
might result in more clashes between the farmers and the herders.
President
Buhari had during his visit to Benue on Monday, appealed to leaders of
various groups in the state to convince their constituents that the
Federal Government was doing its best to end the recurring attacks by
armed herdsmen in various parts of the country.
The President’s
visit to Benue comes weeks after some communities in Guma and Logo Local
Government Areas of the state were attacked by suspected herdsmen.
After
conducting a mass burial for at least 70 persons in the wake of the
killings, the state government is preparing to bury more victims of the
attacks.