Group deplores woman’s murder
FOLLOWING a violent clash between farmers and cattlemen in Benue State, about 3,600 Fulani have been displaced from their homes.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which confirmed this, said the displaced people were currently taking refuge in four temporary camps in Utanga, Obanliku Local Council of Cross River State.
A NEMA team, which visited the camps to provide relief materials last weekend, confirmed that the temporary camps accommodate 905 men, 1,499 women and 1,201 children.
A statement by Spokesman, NEMA, Yushau Shuaib, disclosed that the agency’s Director-General, Muhammad Sani-Sidi, commended the Cross River State government for accommodating the displaced persons and for providing borehole, tents and water tanks at the camps.
The NEMA chief asked the camp managers to ensure direct distribution of the items to the displaced people and that efforts should be made to ensure their return to their settlements in Katsina Ala, Benue State, after the resolution of the conflict.
Mr. Mike Adeyanju, who spoke on behalf of NEMA chief, also appealed to the displaced Fulani to be peaceful and co-operate with the people in their host community.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the recent killing of a mother of seven, Mrs. Ana Christopher Gyang, in Lwa Village of Bachit District in Ryom Local Council of Plateau State.
Mrs. Gyang, a mother of seven, was reportedly killed during a Sunday night attack on the village by yet-to-be-identified armed invaders.
In a statement by its National Co-ordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Officer, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA “pleaded with members of the diverse ethnic nationalities and adherents of the different religious orientation to live in harmony and work out comprehensive mechanism for the promotion of inter-ethnic, inter-religious dialogue and concord rather than reprisal killings.”
The group said “tribal and religious leaders should be empowered by government to effectively wade into these protracted crises with the aim of arriving at acceptable and concrete solution.”
Worried that the Federal and state governments “have failed to curb the menace of mid-night mass killings of villagers made up of essentially women, children and the aged in Plateau State,” HURIWA charged “the Plateau State House of Assembly to pass a law for the establishment of community and statewide vigilance security outfit to be composed of well-trained and law-abiding youths for the purposes of adequately protecting the villagers from being mercilessly massacred by armed attackers.”
