Benue Killings: Our People Need To Protect Themselves — Reps Member

Amid the increasing insecurity in Benue State which led to the loss of lives, the member representing Kwande/Ushongo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Terseer Ugbor, has told Benue people to defend themselves against their attackers.

He stated this while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.

He said that Benue had for a long time not had a local security outfit that could serve as a defence mechanism against such attacks.

“You see, the DG of the DSS publicly said communities will have to come up with self-defence mechanisms. Communities will have to defend themselves. Communities will have to come up with vigilantes and other systems where you can protect your communities,” the lawmaker said.

“This is what Benue needs to do. For a long time, as I said, Benue did not have a militia. Benue has had several attempts to set up a state security apparatus, the former governor, (Samuel) Ortom did that, with the anti-open grazing law.

“Then this government came in and set up their own volunteer guards, ‘Anyam Nyor’. Unfortunately, we’ve not seen much of the impact of ‘Anyam Nyor’ in Benue. So we’ve not been able to set up a good security architecture to protect our communities in Benue. We’ve just not been able to,” he added.

Ugbor noted that the military formations currently in Benue are for peacekeeping rather than for combat.