Benue Rejects Miyetti Allah’s Call For Emergency Rule

The Benue government has described the call by the national president of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Belo Bodejoh, for the declaration of emergency rule in the state and Taraba as unrealistic, untenable and unacceptable.

In a statement Tuesday in Makurdi, the Special Adviser on Media and ICT to the governor, Tahav Agerzua, said the call was myopic, as several other states across the six geopolitical zones of the country had experienced one crisis or the other of even of greater magnitude yet were included.

His words: “Incidentally, what Benue and Taraba states have in common is the enactment and implementation of ranches’ laws which prohibit open grazing. These laws were made to curb incessant clashes between farmers and herders that had taken a huge toll on human lives and property in the two states in accordance with the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“Calling for a declaration of a state of emergency in the two states would be tantamount to punishing them for performing their legimate constitutional responsibility of enacting laws for good governance.”

The aide recalled that Bodejoh, in company of his secretary general, Saleh Alhassan, at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, May 30, 2017, had threatened to “mobilise their kith and kin across the globe to invade Benue State to drive away the inhabitants and take over for cattle to graze freely.”

According to him, “six months later, the association commenced the execution of their threat by invading communities in Benue State, killing hundreds and occupying land left behind by displaced people.

So, it is the responsibility of the police and other law enforcement agencies to arrest these Fulani leaders and prosecute them as they were reported for threatening to undermine the peace of the state.”

He continued: “Someone like Bodejoh and his colleague should be in the dock standing trial for sponsorship of murders and leading a terrorist organisation.”