November 18, (THEWILL) – A group under the aegis of United Farmers’ Association Kadarko (UFAK) has accused the Nasarawa State Government of looking the other way as over 4,700 farmers were allegedly killed by Buzzaye terrorists between 2011 and 2023.
“On a daily or routine basis in communities within and around Keana, Obi, Awe, Doma and Lafia Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State, about 652,260 households are internally displaced and forcefully ejected from their places of abode,” it said.
The Chairman of the group, Mr. Dennis Denen Utsa, who made the disclosure while on an advocacy visit to the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Benue State Council, on Thursday, in Makurdi, alleged that over 246,965 are missing while about 185,671 were brutally injured and not treated by the Nasarawa State Government.
He said, “Buildings have also been burnt down and vandalized. These vulnerable children, women and men are marginalised, abandoned, and enslaved in Nasarawa State for reasons best known to the state authorities.”
The UFAK Chairman averred that since the incessant attacks, killings and burning of houses and ejection of farmers from their ancestral homes in Nasarawa State, neither the Government nor the security agencies had ever arrested suspected perpetrators for prosecution.
“In August 2023, the insurgents traced one of the IDP lodges located at Sarkin-noma community of Kadarko and burnt down the IDP lodges. The suspects were arrested and handed over to the police of State CIID Lafia, Nasarawa State Command. The suspects admitted to committing the crime and paid N2,150,000 as compensation. The police compromised and discharged the killer herder suspects without further desecrate investigation into the ongoing killings, and invasion of farm crops,” he said.
He viewed that insecurity in the state remains a profitable venture for unorganised and unjust stakeholders.
According to the Chairman, UFAK has obtained approvals from the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers Programme to cultivate over 2,000 hectares of rice and has mapped out farmland within Awe, Obi, Keana, Doma, Guma, Logo, Gwer West and Konshisha Local Government Areas of Nasarawa and Benue States.
Utsa said at the border communities of Nasarawa and Benue, places like Tunga, Jangwa, Bakinkota, Madi, Giza, Kadarko, Doka, Agbashir, Torkura, Uliver, Utongu, Udei and Naka among others, 279,873 hectares of unutilised farmlands are covered within Guma, Logo, Gwer-West, Awe, Keana, Doma, Obi Local Government Areas, which continued to be a hideout of the insurgents terrorizing Nasarawa and Benue farmers.
“This unutilised land, if cleared, will help to improve the security situation affecting farming communities within the states and would also empower farmers, especially the returned IDPs to increase farm produce,” he said.
The group, therefore, called on Governor Hyacinth Alia and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to extend the humanitarian gesture in Benue to cover the farmers in Nasarawa State in the planned cluster resettlement of IDPs.
It also called on traditional leaders in Benue State to engage their counterparts in Nasarawa State on a peace talk agenda and prevail over the Chief of Giza Sangari Giza to withdraw the killer herders hired and camped in Giza, Kadarko axis in Nasarawa State.
It equally called on both the Federal, Benue and Nasarawa State Governments to work together and clear the over 279,683.873 hectares of unutilised lands reserved at the Benue and Nasarawa borders so as to improve the security situation for the farmers and others.
The group also called for the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of violence and to ensure that communities affected have access to justice. It equally asked the Nasarawa State Police Command to desist from any act of incitement or fabrication of evidence against farmers in the State.
Responding, the Chairman of NUJ, Benue State Council, Comrade Vincent Nyinongu, decried incessant attacks on innocent citizens across the country, especially in Benue and Nasarawa border communities that led to the displacement of many households.
He said the present Hyacinth Alia administration in Benue State has taken a diplomatic approach towards finding a lasting solution for IDPs by reconnecting the State to the central government as can be seen in the laying of a cluster housing scheme for Benue IDPs at Mbagwen in Makurdi Local Government Area by the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Dr Betta Edu, alongside Governor Hyacinth Alia.
According to Comrade Nyinongu, although UFAK is from Nasarawa State, since it shares a border with Benue communities, it is not out of place to extend advocacy of peace to Benue corridors.
He promised that Journalists in Benue Council would give adequate publicity on what is negatively affecting farmers in Nasarawa and Benue State as a result of insecurity.
