Insecurity: Professors Urge FG To Adopt Community-driven Security Approach 

Tiv professors under the aegis of Aytutu Professors have appealed to the federal government to adopt a community-driven approach to end the lingering security challenges in the country.

Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Council of Management for Ayatutu Professors, Professors Tor Iorapuu and Simon Irtwange,  made the appeal in a statement in Makurdi.

The group  condemned the ongoing killings in Benue and other parts of the country by armed invaders and their sponsors for the purpose of displacing the locals.

They also condemned the invaders’ well-orchestrated design to grab land; disrupt the economy, culture and the education of the people and mine minerals among others in Benue.

The professors acknowledged that the efforts of various tiers of government had not yielded the desired outcome of protecting the lives and property of  Tiv people and Benue citizens in general.

“There is the need for community approach to security and self-help, but it must be within the framework of careful post-conflict management of its complexities.

“There is the need to mobilise and organise our people to defend their lives, land and the future well-being of their children.

“We must defend ourselves against ambitious land grabbers working in cohort with some power-seeking, disoriented, ambitious, but self-centred politicians and traditional rulers,” they said.

The forum called for the expansion of the role of the Benue State Bureau of Homeland Security to include farming communities protection.

They also recommended an annual levy of N1,000 for all taxable adults in Tiv land and Benue in general for the funding of the activities of the renamed Bureau of Homeland Security and Farming Communities Protection.

The professors encouraged  Tiv and Benue people to remain focused and united.

“The era of the attitude of a community for itself is gone. The longer we journey on the road to unity, the more the sense of belonging grows and deepens.

“This is the only way we can collectively challenge and fight this deliberate but unprovoked humiliation.

“The forum encouraged Governor Hyacinth Alia  and all the paramount traditional rulers to keep their focus on this uncomfortable cross.” (NAN)