Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has asked the federal government to suspend the conduct of the National Population and Housing Census until all Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, are returned to their ancestral homes.
Governor Ortom made the call on Thursday, April 13th, 2023, when he received a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum led by its President, Dr Bitrus Pogu, at Benue People’s House, Makurdi.
The governor stated that close to two million indigenes of Benue State were in the IDP camps and would not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.
Governor Ortom 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.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, quoted the governor to have said: “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.
“(This is) because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities,” the governor 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 six thousand 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 six thousand people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed, and we are still counting because others are in the hospital,” he said.
Governor Ortom however maintained that despite the unprovoked attacks and other injustices meted out to 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.”
The President Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, in his earlier remarks, also corroborated what the Governor Ortom said and urged the Federal Government to suspend the proposed national population and housing census because he believed that the exercise “was coming with a hidden agenda.”
Dr Pogu also frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen had been killing people of the Middle Belt in connivance with other Fulani socio-cultural groups like Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM, openly claiming responsibility without being arrested.
He said what had made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the Middle Belt more frightening was 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 our 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 President of Middle Belt Forum stated that for every one to have a sense of belonging, the federal government should move beyond mere “issuance of condolence messages” whenever people were killed and decisively deal with the killers and their sponsors. (source: the conclave). NNL.
