A non-governmental organisation, the Ohewem Global Foundation (OGF), has called on public-spirited Nigerians to look the way of Ukpute and Ochoro communities of Oju and Konshisha local government areas of Benue state currently facing traumatic living conditions.
Specifically, Ukpute has been under siege in the past 13 months with the Tiv militias from Bonta community of Konshisha LGA over a land dispute that has resulted wanton destruction of lives and property at the place since then.
President of OGF, Apostle Samuel Otogodo Arikwu, while speaking with Blueprint Wednesday, called on public-spirited Nigerians across religions and ethnicity, to come to the aid of the distressed people.
Apostle Arikwu said, whereas everybody was celebrating the release of the abducted Igede boy of Ochoro community whom Governor Samuel Ortom gave scholarship up to the university level, the resort to guerilla attacks on Ukpute and Ochoro communities has led to a mass of refugees and internally displaced persons most of whom sleep in the open.
He lamented that the people’s places of worship; churches and health centres have been reduced to rubbles and called on Nigerians, including NGOs and international donors to quickly come to the rescue of the depraved people.
Describing the recent killing of two pastors in Ochoro community by the Tiv militia as most gruesome, Arikwu urged Governor Ortom to do the needful by facilitating the urgent demarcation of the boundary between the troubled communities in order to restore peace to the people.
While commending the chairman of Oju LGA, Hon Clement Onaa Agi for engaging in peace initiatives, Apostle Arikwu enjoined all Nigerians to rally round the youthful chairman with the view to rebuilding the destroyed houses, clinics and churches.