The slaughter of more than 200 innocent and unwitting people in Yelewata Community, Guma Local Government Area, Benue State, has been strongly denounced by Dr. Paul Botwev Orhii, the former director-general of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). According to Dr. Orhii, the recent atrocities in Yelewata of old men, women, and children who were thought to be Fulani herdsmen, as well as other similar massacres around the State, were heinous, barbaric, cruel, and demonic crimes that everyone with a conscience should condemn.
He lamented that although the State’s elder statesmen and community leaders had voiced individual concerns about the genocidal actions of the criminal herdsmen, they had not come together to confront and address the horrific carnage and serial killings carried out by the criminal armed men. He stated that “Benue Leaders of Thoughts and Community Leaders must constructively engage and collaborate with both State and Federal Governments to find a lasting solution to the wanton killings and destruction in the once peaceful State.”
Once referred to be the “Food Basket of the Nation,” Benue State has regrettably devolved into a Hobbesian state where “life is short and brutish because of the murderous attacks of the suspected Fulani armed herdsmen,” the former Director General bemoaned. In light of this terrible loss of innocent life, Dr. Orhii sent his deepest sympathies and condolences to the governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, the families of Yelewata, and the good people of Benue State. Orhii said that the federal and state governments’ combined efforts to strengthen security and provide humanitarian aid will help the impacted populations and ease the state’s ongoing tension.
He recommended that the government immediately arrange for citizens to receive self-defence training and equip physically fit men in different local communities to act as the CIVILIAN FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE AGAINST EXTERNAL ATTACKS. “Governments must introduce new all-encompassing and holistic kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to tackle the hydra-headed menace posed by the criminal armed herdsmen,” he said.
