Benue State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, on Tuesday appealed to the military high command that the state needed absolute peace and not the relative peace being witnessed currently.
This was as the Chief of Defence Staff pledged that efforts were ongoing to ensure that all internally displaced persons camps across the country were closed while Nigerians in those camps were returned to their respective homes.
Alia, who arrived at the Defence Headquarters in Abuja at about 1:19pm, made the plea in an interview with Defence Correspondents shortly after a closed-door meeting with the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Christopher Musa, in his office.
Accompanied by government officials from the state, the governor explained that the state remained vulnerable because four Local Government Areas share borders with Cameroon, hence, the reason for requesting the military to come to their aid.
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He said the state government requested the military to establish Forward Operation Bases (FOB) in some strategic locations where criminals had turned to their hideouts and some areas where solid minerals had been discovered.
He stated, “First of all, we came to congratulate the CDS for his ascension to this position. We know his track records and we are convinced he’s the right person to, at this specific time, take us further into the security we seek in the state. So, we came to also appreciate what they have been doing.
“The Nigerian army has done so much for the state. We went through different stages for quite some time. But since we came in since May, the state has experienced a lot and lots of relative peace and that is the way forward, and we will continue to look forward to more of that.
“And we came also to appreciate them. We are at home with Operation Whirl Stroke, and they are in the trenches, but like Oliver Twist, we came to ask for more. We came to present some more prayers, because we want not just relative peace, we want absolute peace.
“The peace in the form that will enable our IDPs to go back home to their ancestral farmland and for everyone to sleep with two eyes closed. So we are quite happy he received us very graciously and accepted the prayers we also made.”
He maintained that the recent discovery of solid minerals makes the state prone to security challenges, noting that he wants a situation where all farmers can return to their respective family land.
Alia added, “We need purely security. We were at some point infested with insecurity. The bandits and killers infested the state and the Benue Valley and we recorded scores of deaths and families and people lost their homes and their farmland.
“Life is just returning with the support of the Nigerian military via the Operation Whirl Stroke and they are doing great work but we want some more to be done. We are praying for Forward Operation Bases (FOB). Also to be made in the state are barracks.
“Four Local Governments in the state share border with Cameroon. Benue State is one of the very top states with solid minerals and many more are being discovered. That, to some degree, had the potential of rendering us vulnerable. When you have other forms of insecurity plus this one that is supposed to bring or raise economy but portends some harm further down the road, we need to secure the borders very well.”
When asked how the state would help the military, the governor said, “Definitely in all ramifications, we are quite willing to help the military, we are willing to do it financially as well. We are willing to support the military if those Bases are created.
“We would ensure that the troops are pushing enough in their own work. Economically, we are willing to go the whole hog with them.”
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In his reaction, the CDS said the military was making frantic efforts on a daily basis to ensure that all the camps where IDPs occupy were closed while the persons there return to their respective homes in peace.
According to him, the military was already working on the request of the Benue State governor before his visit, saying Operation Whirl Stroke and other operations across the country would be strengthened.
He added, “We have actually requested that or have also advised that security is everybody’s responsibility and this shows immediately. You see His Excellency is here to show his concern for his people in Benue State.
“What he has requested for are things we equally are working towards. We want to enhance all our operations. Operation Whirl Stroke has been doing so much and we want them to do more.
“He has enumerated a lot of issues on ground, the issue of discovery of mineral resources. We know how rich Benue is, and the attraction it has, especially being a hideout for criminal elements. We want to assure him that we have listened to what he has said, we will take these things into consideration in our deployment and we are going to enhance our capabilities going forward.
“We want Benue and the rest of Nigeria to be peaceful. We want every Nigerian to enjoy that they are Nigerians. The IDPs camps, we want them closed. We want farmers to be able to go back to their farms. People should be able to go back to their communities so that they can live well. Those are the tasks we have ahead of us and we can assure Nigerians that they can rely on and trust that the armed forces of Nigeria is here for them.”
