Ortom to FG: Return IDPs home, ensure security before 2023 census

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Ortom to FG: Return IDPs home, ensure security before 2023 census

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has advised the Federal Government to suspend the conduct of the 2023 National Population and Housing Census until all Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, are returned to their ancestral homes.

The Governor gave the advice Thursday when a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, led by its National President, Dr Bitrus Pogu visited him in Makurdi.

The Governor stated that the advice became necessary because “close to two million indigenes of Benue State are still living in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps and will not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.”

He said the Federal Government should have the IDPs returned to their homes to ensure adequate security for those of them in Benue and elsewhere in the country.

“I want to say that the Federal Government should suspend the issue of the census because it looks like the proposed census is coming with an agenda.

“It should be on hold until they are able to restore security and all our IDPs go back to their ancestral lands to give all of them opportunities to be counted in their homes of birth because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities.”

Governor Ortom lamented that at present, “there is so much injustice, bias and tribalism” going on in the country that both the leaders and the people were expected to correct it before the country could move forward.

He particularly decried the sustained attacks on Benue communities by armed herdsmen over the years in which more than 6,000 people have died and property worth billions of Naira destroyed with the Federal Government doing little to help.

He said “In Benue State alone we have lost over 6,000 people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed and we are still counting because others are in the hospital.”

Governor Ortom however maintained that despite the unprovoked attacks and other injustices meted on the people of the state, “Benue people will remain law-abiding citizens because they believe in Nigeria and have worked for the unity of the country.”

The National President of MBF, Dr Pogu also corroborated with Governor Ortom, and urged the Federal Government to suspend the proposed national population census because he believed that the exercise “was coming with a hidden agenda.”

Dr Pogu also frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen had been killing people of the Middle Belt in connivance with other Fulani socio-cultural groups like the Fulani Nationality Movement, and FUNAM, openly claiming responsibility without being arrested.

He said what had made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the Middle Belt more frightening was that after killing and displacing the villagers, “the Fulani came and renamed those villages.”

Pogu maintained that the people of the Middle Belt “will not cede our land to anyone. No portion of our land will be ceded to anyone. It will not be allowed. That should not be allowed to happen. Our land is our heritage.”

The President of MBF stated that for everyone to have a sense of belonging, the Federal Government should move beyond mere “issuance of condolences messages” whenever people were killed and decisively deal with the killers and their sponsors.