The Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, Mrs. Angele Dikongue Atangana Friday condemned the wanton killing and destruction in Agatu local government area of Benue State describing it as an act of genocide.
Mrs. Atangana, who was on an assessment tour of the communities ravaged by suspected Fulani insurgents where hordes of farmers have been massacred and thousands displaced, described the damage as unimaginable, and observed that the repair is beyond the people of the area.
The UN Representative, who was led on the tour by the House of Representative Committee on Internally Displaced Persons, Refugees and North East Development Initiative Deputy Chairman, Chief Ezekiel Adaji, stated that the plight of Agatu people deserves both national and international attention. According to her, the damage caused by the herders could be linked to what is happening in the North East, and assured that her commission would come to the aid of the IDP’s in the area of rehabilitation.
Addressing the IDP’s at the Ugbokpo camp, Mrs. Atangana disclosed that the commission has donated nonfood items worth over N20 million to the IDP’s, stating that the items were already with the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA in Makurdi.
In his remarks, Chief Adaji, who represents Otukpo/ Ohimini in the House of Representatives, called on both the state and Federal Governments to evolve positive steps towards the rehabilitation of Agatu land. The lawmaker decried the extent of devastation done to the area by the herders, and appealed individuals and spirited organisations in the state on an assessment of environmental challenges.
The governor lamented that the clashes had assumed more deadly dimensions as the entire state was at the moment under siege from the influx of foreign herdsmen whose mission was to destroy everything, chase away the people and occupy the land. According to him, if soldiers had not been deto come to the aid of the victims.
A statement by the Secretary Publicity sub-committee of the Idoma Communal Crises Management Committee (ICCMC), Mr. Adoka Adaji, quoted Chief Adaji as commending the UN Commission’s representative for taking the pain to visit the ravaged communities, while the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, Dr. Michael Apochi, advocated for peace, saying that what transpired in Agatu was not a religious crisis.
