Force Commander, Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS), Major General Adeyemi Yekini, yesterday said communities attacked by herdsmen in Benue have been cleared and are now safe for internally displaced persons to return home.
Maj Gen. Yekini also said 235,000 IDPs have so far returned to their ancestral homes in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba states following the takeoff of Operation 777, an offshoot of OPWS, two months ago.
The OPWS commander, who disclosed this during a media tour of some of the villages in Benue and Nasarawa states yesterday, explained that in Benue alone, over 200,000 persons had returned home after the security intervention in their communities.
According to him, troops of the OPWS were ready to sustain patrol of the affected areas to give the returning IDPs a sense of security, noting that the IDPs still at the camp could now return home to
peaceful activities.
“More than 200,000 have returned from Benue alone, 15,000 in Nasarawa and 10,000 in Taraba.
“What we have done is to establish patrol bases to be able to cover all areas as much as possible from where troops go out on daily basis to cover all flash points. But people are largely afraid to return
home. Of course, people who have seen war will always be afraid but we will continue to try our best.”
Yekini also disclosed that OPWS had recently done new deployments of more troops to some areas considered as flash points, to further strengthen the security in those areas and encourage more IDPs to
return home.
In some of the council wards visited during the media tour which included Mabai, Mbadwen, Mbaye Yandav, Nyiev and Mbawa all in Guma local government area of Benue, community leaders who spoke commended the efforts of OPWS which have brought peace to their various areas.
The leaders, including a former President, Customary Court, Justice Augustine Utsaha and the kindred head of Mbadwen, Chief Abu Ajir, commended the federal and state governments as well as the security
agencies for restoring security to their area.
