The Benue State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has rejected a plan by the Federal Government to set up a Fulani colony in the state.
In a statement, the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Bemgba Iortyom in Makurdi, the PDP said: “Benue has no such indigenous Fulani population with land holdings where such a colony could be established.
The statement reads in part: “It is no longer news that the All Progressives Congress (APC)- controlled administration of President Bola Tinubu has earmarked Benue as one among a few states where a Federal Government sponsored settlement for Fulani herdsmen is to be established.
Vice President Kashim Shettima said at a public function in Maiduguri last week that President Tinubu has approved the construction of 1,000 houses in Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and Benue states with the ancillary facilities of schools, clinics, veterinary clinics and ranches for the Fulani community.
The establishment of those Fulani colonies, according to VP Shettima, is “part of a broad plan by the Federal Government to address the conflict in the North”.
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But for the people of Benue State there is more darkness than light surrounding this planned Fulani community, and the reasons are not far-fetched.
Firstly, the absence of a peer-to-peer basis for the inclusion of Benue, among the other selected states which all have large indigenous Fulani populations with substantial land holdings on which such colonies could be sited, while Benue does not have such a situation.
In other words in those other states, it could be natural to have such colonies where a Fulani population is already in situ and which would seamlessly be accommodated therein.
Benue has no such indigenous Fulani population with land holdings where such a colony could be established.
Secondly, it is unjust and ultimately insensitive to have a colony established for the Fulani with all the facilities for modern living in a state where victims of the genocidal atrocities committed by those same Fulani are still displaced from their lands and means of livelihood and living in sub-human conditions in camps which bear semblance to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during 2nd World War.
In May 2018 the then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who visited Benue made a commitment on behalf of the Buhari administration to resettle those displaced back to their lands and as well made a pledge of 10 billion to them.
“That promise by VP Osinbajo has not been fulfilled and the displaced persons in the IDP camps are still even to date being attacked and killed by Fulani herdsmen in the camps and dare not venture near their plundered and desolate ancestral lands to scavenge for food.
“It is inhuman to even contemplate settling those oppressors in comfort while their victims are languishing in hellish conditions, and this amounts to thumbing-up criminality while rubbing the nose of the victim into his blood spilled by the oppressor.
“Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state puts to Alia that he is the one who put Benue on that list of Fulani colonisation to fulfill his promise to Fulani lobby groups to accommodate herdsmen in the state in return for their support and sponsorship during his campaigns at the last elections.
“PDP, therefore, demands that Alia should remove Benue from that list of colonisation, as the people had during the Buhari administration rejected such attempts to have herdsmen colonies in the state.
“Benue had rejected Ruga, the Water Resources Bill, Cattle Colony, Grazing Routes and every form of Fulani colonisation.
PDP reiterated that Benue does not need a Fulani colony, what the state needs is Alia’s fulfillment of his promises to IDPs to resettle them on their ancestral lands.
“Benue will resist attempts by Alia and his allies in Abuja to settle Fulani herdsmen on land they displaced from through killings and plunder.
“It is the understanding of the party that as reflected in the principle driving the Prohibition of Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law, Fulani are permitted to live and do lawful business in the state, it is, however, such policies as will negates such principle of peaceful coexistence that will be resisted by the people.
The party expects that the governor is aware of the deadly serious nature of this matter and that he cannot afford to dismiss it and attempt to have a Fulani colony established on any inch of Benue soil.
