From Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Sustained attacks on five council wards, including Turan community in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State, where over 27 people were confirmed killed recently, has witnessed severe humanitarian crisis with not less than 200 households deserting their homes, leaving more than 2000 people, mostly women, children and the elderly homeless.
A member of the House of Representatives for Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency, Terseer Ugbor, who disclosed this after his visit to the affected communities for on-the-spot assessment, expressed shock at the level of destruction and displacement of the locals.
Ugbor wondered why the crisis, which he said had been on for more than 15 years with the matter discussed at different fora, including the National Assembly and security agencies, could remain unresolved.
“The crisis has gone on for over 15 years and more people are being displaced. As you can see, there is nobody left in these communities; houses have been burnt; farmlands abandoned, food crops destroyed with others killed,” Ugbor stated, lamenting that some family members whose wives, husbands and children had been killed were demanding justice.
The lawmaker said as the representative of the people, he visited the community to have proper and firsthand report so that he could present the situation on the floor of the House of Representatives and to the Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, to know the next line of action.
Ugbor, who expressed appreciation to the top military brass for deploying enough security to the troubled area to protect lives and property, confirmed that though about 400 soldiers are on ground to provide security, soldiers lack the necessary equipment to match the firepower of the terrorists who have already occupied some ancestral homes.
The lawmaker, who said the terrorists had given no reasons why they were fighting, said they might be seeking to take over the land due to its fertility and riverine nature, but insisted that the Tiv, known historically as farmers, would not abandon their ancestral homes for invaders.
He appealed to the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Defense Staff and the Minister of Defense to prevail on the relevant authorities to provide more logistics and equipment that could overrun the bandits terrorising communities in Kwande and bring the killings to an end and for displaced persons to go back to their ancestral homes.
