The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Very Revd. Fr. Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe, has cried out to the world over the intractable hostility and bloodshed visited on people of Benue State by armed Fulani herdsmen that has led to the massacre of hundreds of innocent people.
Bishop Anagbe, in a viral video, drew the attention of the international community to the atrocities of the murderous Fulani herdsmen in Benue and other states in Nigeria, which he attributed to the primary motivation for land annexation by force of arms.
Bishop Anagbe accused the political class in “aiding and abetting” the crimes of the herdsmen by couching “politically correct” narratives to hide the extent of the atrocities, in and outrightly withholding security intervention by security agencies in some cases when called upon, all of which he maintained, have combined to give the terrorists the upper hand against peasant farming populations in the affected communities.
Speaking particularly about Benue State where he hails from, the Catholic Bishop accused the terrorists of displacing a large number of people from their ancestral lands, and the consequent occupation of same lands by the invaders.
The greatest tragedy, Bishop Anagbe said, is the decision of the government to concentrate more on construction of camps for displaced persons, instead of finding ways to get the terrorists out of the lands he said they are occupying illegally.
He pointed out how unsustainable it is to keep families in IDP camps, since those families had prior to their displacement, been earning their living in at least the basic dignity guaranteed the human person.
Bishop Anagbe wondered how the same population are now required to live in a tent and survive on handouts from government and donor agencies.
He said “to be silent is to die twice”.
The Bishop’s outcry elicited reaction from the political class in the state, including Chief Bemgba Iortyom, a governorship contender in the 2027 general elections, who viewed it as a wake-up call to Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State.
“This is a wake-up call to Governor Hyacinth Alia, who appears to be in a slumber in the midst of the unfolding tragedy. Whenever the governor come out to say something about the ongoing bloodshed in his state, he says he has reduced it to “mere skirmishes” and restored “relative peace”.
“The practical reality is that Governor Alia represents everything that the Bishop cried out about to the international community. The governor is the Coiner-in-Chief of those shocking “politically correct narratives” which seek to hide the true extent of the horror of the crimes of the herdsmen against poor Benue populations.
“By constantly giving the impression to the outside world that there is no crime being committed by the herdsmen in Benue State on any significant scale, the governor has constituted himself into a clog against local collaborative efforts which should serve to protect the people from their oppressors,” he said.
