Former Director-General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Botwev Orhii, has condemned in strong terms the massacre of more than 200 innocent and unsuspecting persons in Yelewata Community, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
In an emotion-laden press statement yesterday, Dr. Orhii said the recent killings of vulnerable women, children, and elderly men by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Yelewata and other similar massacres across the state are despicable, barbaric, inhuman, and satanic acts that all people of conscience must rise up in unison to condemn.
He regretted that even though the community leaders and elder statesmen in the state have individually expressed concerns about the genocidal activities of the criminal herdsmen, they have failed to present a united, formidable, and common front to confront and tackle the gruesome serial murders and carnage perpetrated by the criminal armed men.
According to him, Benue leaders of thought and community leaders must constructively engage and collaborate with both state and federal governments to find a lasting solution to the wanton killings and destruction in the once peaceful state.
The former Director-General lamented that Benue State, once described as the Food Basket of the Nation, has unfortunately been turned into a Hobbesian state where life is short and brutish because of the murderous attacks of the suspected Fulani armed herdsmen.
Dr. Orhii expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathy to the Benue State Governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, bereaved families of Yelewata, and the good people of Benue State over this monumental loss of innocent lives.
The former NAFDAC boss expressed hope that the concerted efforts of the federal and state government to beef up security and step up humanitarian interventions will bring succour to the embattled communities and assuage the pervasive tension in the state.
Dr. Orhii suggested that government must urgently organise training of citizens on self-defence techniques and empower able-bodied men in various local communities to serve as civilian first line of defence against extraordinary attacks.
Governments must introduce new, all-encompassing, and holistic kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to tackle the hydra-headed menace posed by the criminal armed herdsmen, he intoned.
