Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Benue Intelligence Forum, a private security group on Sunday evening raised an alarm over planned attacks on some communities in Benue state sponsored militias.
The attacks will be carried out between Monday and Friday this week if proper care isn’t taken, Benue Intelligence Forum stated in a press statement issued to journalists in Makurdi this evening by the group Commandant, Comrade Julius Hilary Agber.
The communities that are penciled down for attacks by the militias who are going to blame the attacks on Fulani herdsmen are Gwer, Guma, Kwande, Vandekya, Agatu and Otukpo.
According to Benue Intelligence Forum in the statement, some Federal Government appointees and some federal lawmakers as well as some politicians from the state like Pius Akutah, Matthias Byuan, Senators Emmanuel Udende, Titus Zam, Abba Moro, Hon. Tarkighir Dickson, John Akperashi and others who are working under the directive of Dr. George Akume are the ones orchestrating and sponsoring the planned attacks which will be launched on Fulani herdsmen and their cows in the six local governments.
“The plan is to use their attacks to force the Fulani herdsmen into reprisal attacks so as to begin to call on the federal government to declare a State of Emergency in the state. They only want the governor removed from office through an Emergency Rule and nothing more” the group said.
Benue Intelligence Forum also challenged the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese who is also the leader of the Christians Association of Nigeria, Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe to explain why he is the one distributing the funds that were raised by the “enemies of Benue state” to the Militias to start attacking innocent Benue people.
According to the security group, there are plans to start the attacks in Guma and Gwer areas of Benue state tomorrow, Monday while the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse will be inside a security meeting with all the stakeholders of the Tiv land at his palace in Gboko.
The group however called on President Bola Tinubu to inform him that his appointees from Benue state are sons of the state but have now turned to the enemies of the state by sponsoring deadly attacks on Fulani herdsmen who are also retaliating by killing hundreds of innocent Benue people in their cold blood on daily basis.
The group stated further that these federal appointees and federal lawmakers from Benue state are also enemies of President Bola Tinubu as they are creating insecurity to make the president lose the state in 2027.
Benue Intelligence Forum accused Dr. George Akume of plotting a State of Emergency in Benue state at all cost hence his alliance with militias that are killing people up and down in the state for the past few months.
The group also called on the DSS, Army, the Commissioner of Police in Benue state and other relevant security agencies to deploy their men to the six local governments to ensure that the militias that had been paid by the federal appointees and federal lawmakers from Benue state do not have the chance to carry out their deadly attacks on innocent people of the state just because they want to score a cheap political point
“Both Akutah and Byuan have been using the Nigerian Shippers Council and Federal Housing Authority funds to sponsor militias to attack Fulani herdsmen in Benue state. They are the ones behind the recent poisoning of cows, an action which had led the Fulani herdsmen to launch reprisal attacks on the innocent people in Sankera” the group stated.