Benue leaders have vowed to resist any plan by the Federal Government to build houses and settlements for Fulani herdsmen in any part of the state.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the leaders, under the aegis of Mzough U Tiv (MUT) and Ochetoha k’Idoma (OKI), said in a statement that no part of the state would be ceded for the construction of such facilities.
They lamented that over two million Benue indigenes displaced by armed herders still reside in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps across the state.
The leaders urged the Federal Government to call off the project, which they claimed was part of a broad plan to address conflicts in the northern part of the country.
They said the construction of such a facility in Benue State would go through a process that would have the input of all stakeholders, particularly the state government.
The leaders questioned the hasty manner in which the project was planned and subsequently approved.
According to the statement by the leaders, the ethnic groups in the state have resolved to file behind the State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, not to cede any portion of the state to anyone, not even the Federal Government, to build settlements for ‘oppressors’.
The leaders called on President Bola Tinubu to call off the project and direct the relevant agencies to commence a resettlement and rehabilitation process for IDPs in the state to return to their ancestral homes.
They drew Tinubu’s attention to the situation in Moon Council Ward of Kwande LGA, where the locals had been sacked and their homes occupied by armed herdsmen.
