Governor Gabriel Suswam has gotten the approval of the President Goodluck Jonathan to rid the state of armed Fulani nomads terrorizing farmers in the State.
Suswam made the announcement to journalists on Thursday night after a meeting with the President at the State House Abuja.
He said, “The crises between the nomads and farmers have deteriorated. And I have come to brief the President.
“Certain actions have been taken by the President to curb the continuation of that crisis but it is getting very serious.
“And I’m a bit worried and the entire people of Benue are very worried how these people in their thousands are moving freely and causing the kind of destruction that they are causing in Benue State.
“We hope that with some of the actions taken by the President, that this situation would be calmed down.”
On the relationship between the crisis and the security situation in the country, Suswam said: “You cannot isolate that. I think some people are taking advantage of the security situation in the country to further create fear in our people.
“And the unfortunate thing is that the people in Benue are basically farmers and these Fulani militias have taken over some parts of the land. Some people have run to town and so, down the road we are going to have economic issues.
“So, these people must necessarily be dislodged. Those decisions have been taken. We must dislodge them because from all indications they want to form another base.
“And once they set up their bases in these places, they can attack anywhere from there. Kogi is not safe, Nasarawa is not safe, even Abuja is not safe. So, we must dislodge them now that they are just settling down, they are in their numbers and they have all kinds of weapons with them.
“And as I said, the President has taken some very serious steps and we believe that they would be dislodged; otherwise, it is going to be another issue like what is happening in other parts of the country.”
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