IGP was reported to have described the tragedy as a communal clash
He apologise for the statement at a stakeholders meeting
SEMA has registered about 80,000 IDPs
By Daniel Agbo, Makurdi
Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris, yesterday, tendered apology over a statement credited to him on recent killings in some Benue communities.
The IGP was reported to have described the tragedy as a communal clash.
Tendering an apology at a meeting he had with stakeholders in the New Banquet Hall of the People House Makurdi, Idris told the gathering that he was misinterpreted.
Idris said what he meant was that all Nigerians were brothers and there was need for them to remain united, and that any crisis between them should be seen as a communal clash.
“Honestly, as a person, I want to apologise for that statement. I was misinterpreted in that briefing that I had in Abuja. What I meant was that as Nigerians, we should try to live together; we should be our brothers’ keepers. Whether Tiv, Hausa, Ibo, Fulani or Idoma, we all belong to this country.
“As policemen, we should be seen as protecting lives, and as Nigerians wherever we are, we have to behave like brothers, so that by the grace of God, Nigeria will remain united and stronger than before,” he said.
While telling them he was in the state following a presidential order, the IGP said, “I have come with 10 Units of Mobile Police of about 663 persons and one unit of crack investigators.
“We will send them to the flashpoint to investigate, and to Nasarawa to also investigate the allegations that Fulani herdsmen militias were camped at Tungwa.
“By tomorrow, I will travel to Nasarawa and speak with the people, thereafter; we will come back here and have a larger meeting of the two states.
“I am sure the crisis will be put to an end by the time we resolve most of these issues.”
Also speaking, Governor Samuel Ortom told the IGP that the death toll resulting from the killings, has reached 73.
He said fifty thousand (50,000) people have been internally displaced and were currently living in camps in some designated points around the affected areas.
The governor said despite the high-level of casualty recorded, “we remain committed to the law (on anti-grazing), there is no going back, because we believe it is the only solution in ending this crisis between herdsmen and farmers.
“What we have done is to protect both herdsmen and farmers with this law. Over 20 persons were arrested and are being arraigned. They are not only herdsmen; there are also indigenes among them who violated this law.”
On his earlier claim that the killers were in Nasarawa, he reiterated: “I said this in the meeting in Nasarawa and the governor, Tanko Al-Makura also was there and he said Tungwa has border with several states, Taraba, Plateau, Benue and somebody can come from anywhere to attack the state.”
Earlier, the Tiv paramount ruler, Professor James Ayatse, described the killings as ethnic cleansing.
He, however, noted that all the people of the state wanted was peace, saying “Tiv people are scattered in Nasarawa and Taraba states, and are single ethnic majority in such state.”
The monarch expressed his people’s commitment to cooperate with the police to put an end to the killings.
80,000 IDPs now in Benue
Meanwhile, the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has said it has registered about 80,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across four camps located in Guma and Logo local government areas of the state.
Guma and Logo were the local governments affected by the recent murder of about 50 people by suspected herdsmen.
The figure, however, runs contrary to the 50 given by the governor.
Executive Secretary of SEMA, Emmanuel Shior, made the disclosure while speaking with journalists yesterday in Makurdi.
Shior said the agency arrived at the figure during its manual registration of the IDPs in the two local government areas.
He said the IDPs were at the government approved camps at Daudu, Tse-Ginde and Gbajimba, all in Guma and Ugba in Logo local councils.
“At the moment, what we have done is the manual registration of the displaced persons, not the biometrics; and we have registered about 80,000 IDPs across the four camps in the state.
“We are likely to open more camps depending on the situation, because we have started receiving IDPs from Nasarawa state, who were displaced also as a result of the same invaders.
“But Governor Samuel Ortom has already mobilised the agency to take both food and non-food materials to the camps and we are doing same,” he said.
The ES admitted that the agency was overwhelmed with the level of humanitarian services, adding that it would do its best to ensure that the IDPs did not live below the set standard.