Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has called on the Federal Government to suspend the conduct of the National Population Census.
He said that the federal government should allow all the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs return to their ancestral homes before embarking on the exercise.
Governor Ortom made the call on Thursday when he received a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum led by its President, Dr Bitrus Pogu.
He noted that a large number of people in the state were still in the IDP camps and may not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.
Ortom however suggested that what the Federal Government should do before the census should hold was to ensure adequate security for the IDPs in Benue and elsewhere in the country to go back to their homes to be counted.
According to him, “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.
“So 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 the homes of birth.
“Because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities.
He added, “There was 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.
The governor decried the sustained attacks on Benue communities by herdsmen over the years in which he said more than six thousand people have died and property worth billions of naira destroyed, the governor regretted that Federal Government had done little to help.
“In Benue State alone we have lost over six thousand people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed and we are still counting because others are in the hospital,” adding that despite the
unprovoked attacks,
“Benue people will remain law-abiding citizens, our people believe in Nigeria and have worked for the unity of the country.’
Speaking earlier, the President of Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu urged the Federal Government to suspend the proposed national population census because he believed that the exercise “was coming with a hidden agenda.”
He frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen have 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.
Dr Pogu said what has made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the Middle Belt more frightening is that after killing and displacing the villagers, “the Fulani came and renamed those villages.”
He assured that despite all the atrocities on the people of the Middle Belt ” we 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.”
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