From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The President-General of the Tiv socio-cultural organisation, Mzough-U-Tiv (MUT), Chief Iorbee Ihagh, has described the call by the Senate asking the federal government to declare state of emergency on security as apt and timely.
Ihagh who also doubles as the Chairman of the three major socio-cultural groups in Benue, Mzough-U-Tiv, OpiatohaK’Idoma and Omny’Igede recalled that the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and other prominent Nigerians including himself had severally stressed the need for the federal government to declare a state of emergency on security even before now.
‘That’s the same thing we have been saying all along. If Buhari does not take a decision on this, Nigeria will break very soon. There’s never a day that people are not killed in this country. So, does it mean the life of a cow is greater than the lives of human beings?
‘So, what Ortom was saying about calling for a state of emergency on security has now been agreed upon by the senate. The leader of Miyetti Allah stays in Abuja and say all manner of things yet the federal government says nothing about it.’
The retired Comptroller of Prisons warned that Nigeria is going to a point of no return if adequate measures are not taken to address the security situation of the country.
‘Too many lives are daily being wasted and we can’t continue this way. The military and the police seem not be in control any longer. We have lost too many lives, we can’t afford to lose more lives again.’
On the call for the creation of Herdsmen Commission by the Attorney General of the Federation, Justice Abubakar Malami, the MUT President General said, “if a commission is to be created for Herdsmen, it should equally be created for farmers. You can do without meat but you can’t do without food.
‘Livestock business is a private business like those who are farming cocoa and the rest of them. How many commissions are you going to create? They must then have to create commission for traders and provision sellers. Or is it because the others are not carrying arms too?’
Also speaking on the recent statement credited to the Minister of Defence that Nigerians must learn to defend themselves, Ihagh asked what then would be the duty of the police and the military?
‘If they are saying that we should defend ourselves, then why do we have the military? Once you see somebody with a pistol, you run away. What is the duty of the Nigerian Army? So, with what he is saying, the government should license everybody to have a gun,’ he stated.
