The Benue State government on Monday said it would not repeal or suspend its anti-open grazing law for any reason.
Benue State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja Jnr., told pressmen in Makurdi that the law would not be repealed.
He spoke against the backdrop of media reports credited to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, suggesting that the law be suspended.
"The Benue state government would not repeal or suspend this law for any reason and we appeal to the police and other security agencies to enforce the law which is their constitutional response," he said.
Onoja also said the statement credited to the IGP blamed the recent killing in Benue state by suspected herdsmen on the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of the state.
He said this was not only provocative but insensitive, and completely violated the basic principle of natural justice with open bias against people of the state.
He said that the state government rejects the statement coming from the nation’s top police officer who should have available records to confirm that there had been more than 47 armed attacks by suspected herders on Benue before the state’s anti-open grazing law came into being and that some of the attacks preceded the present administration in the state.
The commissioner also said that the state government rejects suggestion that Governor Samuel Ortom is making inciting comments on the killings of his people.
"Our governor would continue to speak out against those who have vowed to mobilise Fulani herdsmen from West Africa to take over the Benue valley through violence.
Onoja however added that there could be no greater mischief than the IGP stating that the governor was arming a Tiv militia as well as his frantic efforts at justifying the claim with the fabricated arrest of some people in Taraba state and the planting of AK47 on them when the same government on assumption of office in 2015 championed the cause of disarming youths with illegal weapons obtained from politicians.
"However if the IGP is sincere with disarming militia, the starting point should be with the Fulani militia rated as most deadly on global terrorism index.
The IGP also mentioned the public display of corpses and hate speeches which he claimed sparked riots in Wadata area of Makurdi, this is again off point, Onoja said.
According to him, the Wadata protest came days after the funeral of the 73 slain citizens as a result of the burial of someone rumoured to have been killed as a result of another protest on the invasion of herders.
The commissioner therefore averred that there was a conspiracy against people of Benue following lopsided arrests, the failure to arrest leadership of Myetti Allah Kautal Hore who severally made threats and allegedly carried it out and the outburst of the Defence minister last week as well as the biased position of the IGP.
"We call on the Federal Government to immediately relive Ibrahim Idris from his position as police IGP as he failed woefully in his duties especially as the two weeks ultimatum given to him by the senate to apprehend the killer herdsmen had elapsed without any meaningful arrests of culprits but has resorted to unprofessional trading blames rather than confronting the problem without fear or favour," Onoja posited.
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