Hon. Orker Jev is a federal lawmaker representing Buruku Federal Constituency of Benue State. He spoke in an interview with Olugbenga Adanikin, on need for prominent northern leaders and President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive actions on the herdsmen attack. Beyond mobilising the military, the lawmaker wants full enforcement of the anti-open grazing law with the support of security operatives.
Excerpts:
PRIOR to the recent Benue attack what has been your major concern in the state?
The concern has always been the attack on the people of Benue. I hate it when it is called clashes. People were sleeping in their houses and you came, most time in the dead of the night, and you attack them and run back. And you are talking about clashes. Who is clashing with who? These are not people who reside in the environment, so the word clashes in itself gives me a lot of anger.
We have lived with the Fulanis over time and now, suddenly they have started to attack us. I think it was sometimes last year that Governor El-Rufai of Kaduna state and as recently as day before yesterday Governor Ganduje of Kano state, were telling us that these people are not even indigenous Fulanis to Nigeria; that they come from outside the country which makes it a worse security problem for us.
Just because some foreigners share cultural or tribal affinities with some Nigerians, they come from outside and attack fellow Nigerians, and you look the other way! I think we have a more serious problem on our hand than we are prepared to admit, and that is why any time I have the opportunity to talk, i like to say that the President is not sincere in resolving this matter.
Maybe because he is the patron of this Miyetti Allah group that oversees the herders. And more profoundly because he shares the same cultural affinities with the herdsmen. We know how he has been responding to other security challenges like the Boko-haram, like the South-South and elsewhere. He is decisive when it comes to tackling such, but when it comes to this issue of Fulani herdsmen, I begin to see him turning blind eyes.
This is a situation where the military should be sent in just as the military have been sent to tackle other security challenges that are less demanding than what we have on the ground in Benue state here. Somebody was pointing out that the military is the one trained to handle such situation because the environment is not such that the police can control.
The police are not well trained to chase enemies about in the bush. They are trained to be on the highways and in cities and other such places. You can call the Governor the Chief security officer of the state; he can seat in the same security meeting with the Commissioner of Police and Director of DSS and all of them, but if he gives them orders, will they obey? They can only take those orders if Abuja agrees, otherwise they will ignore him. So it is the President that has the final say on what should be done and until he deplores that decisively in the case of these Fulani herdsmen in Benue and across Nigeria, we will continue to have these issues.
Do you think the Benue anti-open grazing law is fair to all?
If you look at section 20 Sub-section 1-3 of that law, it protects the herders; it says any cattle rustling is punishable by a fine and imprisonment. So, that among others, is what the state should take up because their main complains have been that their cattle is rustled and they do claim that at times they attack because of rustling of their cattle. So that section covers it.
But the Miyetti Allah argued they were not informed and were never part of the formation process.
The world has gone beyond this kind of lie. If you go online, you will see the kind of efforts the state government has made. They had been involved. Even the Miyetti Allah outside of Benue State was involved. Several meetings were held before these laws were passed and signed. Just google it. It is not something somebody can just deny; the world has gone beyond that. So, they are not being truthful on that. All these killings and denials are deliberate attempts to frustrate the law.
What is your take on ranching?
Of course I support it 100 per cent. That is the best. Nigeria has grown beyond the situation where you allow people to do things the way they like. We cant continue with practices we allowed 40 years back when Nigeria’s population was maybe 50 million. Now we are talking about nearly 200 million. Should we allow those practices that took place in the past.
How will you react to the late response of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh to the crisis, especially non-presentation of the issue at FEC
There is a saying that the ball stops at the table of the President as far as such matter is concerned. If there is no political will on the part of the President to tackle this thing, not much can be done. I might not have the details of whether he presented his position to the FEC, but what i know is that whatever we are seeing is a reflection of the attitude of the president on this matter. I am convinced that if the President wants this matter to be resolved, we will see that in his body language. So far, his body language doesn’t convince me that he wants this matter resolved. Responding after the attack and especially responding only after so much criticism, shows he is not sincere.
Last weekend, the IGP declared the killings in Benue as communal clashes. Do you agree with this?
Let me start with the statement of the IGP which was a most insensitive statement. The least he could have done was to come out and apologise and withdraw that statement. But you know the way we do things in Nigeria. For the IGP to come and apologies, he believe it will be seen as a sign of weakness, no. To err is human. He knows he erred. If it was a communal clash, what is the damage on the other side and what was the cause of the communal clash?
We all know that the whole idea was to demoralise the state government and the people of Benue state from carrying on with the anti- open grazing law. If you check Leadership newspaper of 24th of October of last year, they reported a press conference held on the 23rd of October where they were boasting that they will converge on Benue land after they had already filed a court case.
The statement meant something physical which had taken place now. I understand the governor got in touch with security agencies at the federal level to try to alert them to the impending attack. They did nothing and when it happened, they said it was a communal clash. Even if it is a communal clash, is the police not entitled to curtail the situation knowing that they had this information before these attacks happened?
Now that the president has ordered the IGP to go there, let’s hope he goes there with more information than he exhibited when he issued that statement. That is not enough in my opinion. It’s just a reaction to the criticism that the people have given. But it’s better than nothing. What I am saying is that what is on ground requires military presence, not just the police, because the police are handicapped.
What should Nigerians expect from the national assembly?
After we reconvene and plenary commences next week, I am sure the matter will surface on the floor of the House. But let me state that the national assembly has its limitations when it comes to such matters. Between 2015 and now, as the chairman of the Committee on rules and business, I can tell you that we have had at least 18 motions on the floor of the House in respect to insecurity in different parts of the country.
Even the Senate President cannot call the IGP and direct him on what he should do. He will give respect to him and when he gets out of his office he will not do it. And there is not much we can do because we are guided by the constitution. The roles that the national assembly has is that which is allocated by the constitution, so when it comes to such matters, the limitations are there.
