Benue State Governor, Governor Samuel Ortom, and the leadership of the Middle Belt Forum have made a strong case for the postponement of the 2023 census until Internally Displaced Persons (IPDs) in the North Central geopolitical zone are resettled.
Ortom made this call when he hosted the leadership of the Middle Belt Forum who were in the state to commiserate with him over the killing of over 134 persons in one week.
The attacks occurred in the Mgbam community in the Guma Local Government Area. The attacks were allegedly perpetrated by herdsmen in Apa, Otukpo, and Guma areas of the state.
The leadership of the Middle Belt Forum commiserated with the governor and used the occasion to appeal to the National Population Commission to shift the census start date from May 3, 2023, an appeal that resonated with the governor.
According to Ortom, many lives have been lost to these attacks on benue communities in the last six years. He further explained that the state’s anti-grazing law subsists and will be enforced after a two-week of grace to allow herdsmen to exit the state.
The Government of Benue State had earlier in the week announced the suspension of the operations of the livestock guards, the state para-military agency saddled with the enforcement of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of 2017 for a period of two weeks to allow all herdsmen with livestock within Benue territory to exit.
Governor Samuel Ortom made this disclosure at the end of the state security council meeting in the wake of the killing of over 130 persons within one week.
The move is to show good fate to all those who claimed to have come into the state without knowing there is a law prohibiting open grazing.
He also said security agencies in the state has confirmed the receipt of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to fish out perpetrators of the mass killings across the state, a duty he said the security agencies should act fast on to bring victims of the attack some form of justice.