A group of Benue farmers from the Tiv extraction residing in neighbouring Nasarawa State on Thursday stormed Makurdi to protest years of genocide being perpetrated against the Tivs by suspected armed Fulani militants.
The farmers who were on an advocacy visit to the Benue State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) under the umbrella of “The United Farmers’ Association Kadarko (UFAK), lamented serial killing and dehumanized treatment of the Tiv farmers who are living along the border region of Guma, Keana, Gwer-West, Doma, Logo, Awe and Obi local government areas of the two states.
Leader of the delegation which included some Hausa women, Mr. Dennis Denen Utsa, recalled that the Tivs have been living in remote rural areas within the Benue Valley for farming over the years and had co-existed peacefully with other ethnic groups in the region occupying their farmlands for agriculture and economic sustenance.
Mr. Utsa who said the Tiv farmers have on a daily basis been killed or slaughtered by herders, noted that over 4,700 farmers have so far been massacred in the last three years and about 652, 260 households either displaced or forcefully ejected from their homes.
“Between 2011 and 2023, over 4,700 farmers have been killed in Keana, Obi, Awe, Doma and Lafia local government areas and about 652,260 households are internally displaced and forcefully ejected from their places of abode.
He added that “over 246, 965 people are missing, 185, 671 are brutally injured and not treated by the Nasarawa State government. Buildings have also been burnt down and vandalized. The vulnerable children, women and men are marginalized, abandoned and enslaved in Nasarawa State for reasons best known the state authorities”.
The UFAK leader noted that in the midst of the killings, neither the Nasarawa State government nor humanitarian organization have visited the people for any support a situation he said informed the decision of the IDPs to flee to take refuge in neighbouring Benue State.
He noted that as the genocide fester, perpetrators of the dastardly act have not been arrested by either the government or security agencies for prosecution.
The killing of the farmers, he said, has now been viewed as the most thriving business venture which if nothing is urgently done may lead to the extinction of the people.
Mr Utsa said UFAK has obtained approvals from the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) to cultivate over 2,000 hectares of rice, adding that it has also mapped up farmland in several communities within the two states to clear the unutilized farmland, which has continued to be the hideouts of the insurgents to improve the security situation affecting farming communities and to empower farmers especially the IDPs to increase farm produce
He commended Governor Hyacinth Alia’s humanitarian efforts aimed at returning the IDPs back to their ancestral homes and appealed to him to extend the gesture to cover the farmers’ IDPs in Nasarawa State in the planned resettlement of the IDPs.
“The Benue and Nasarawa State government and the federal government should work together and clear over 273, 683, 873 hectares of unutilized farm lands reserved at Nasarawa and Benue borders. Because it will improve the security situation of the farmers communities within the border local government of the state and increase agricultural activities of farmers in the areas”.
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