A Benue youth leader, Magagi Mike Alidu, Alidu, in this interview with Ekwutosblog , decries the massacre of Benue people and the state of the displaced people in the state. Alidu, who is the President of Ochetoha K’Idoma Youth Wing Worldwide, also spoke on the causes of the recent gruesome murder of over 200 people in the state by suspected herdsmen. Excerpts:

There have been security concerns in Benue state in recent times. What is your general thinking on the causes of the killings in different parts of the state?

Well, the general assessment of the killings in different parts of Benue state is actually an occupational agenda. We consider it to be ethnic cleansing or land grabbing. They want to put a level of fear into us as they are killing our people and we are facing all sorts of atrocities so that we can run away like others have been doing already. So that they can take over lands because the Fulani herders said that Benue land is very fertile and their cows could feed here and live better because everything they need for their business is in abundance in Benue state.

It was on the news that Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff relocated to Benue in an effort to hunt down the criminal elements. What impact has that made to address the situation?

The impact was not positive because the Chief of Army Staff came and left the following day. So, there is no positive impact on his visit to the state. In fact, the negative impact of his visit was the rearrangement of the Fulani herders to come and kill over 200 people in Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area and other parts of the state. His coming increased the attack. It made them come in numbers to attack us in a more aggressive manner. In fact, this is the worst attack in the history of Benue; that women, children and the aged were gruesomely murdered in cold blood. The impact of his visit was negative and it did not yield any result.

President Bola Tinubu recently visited Benue to commiserate with the people of the state and chat a way forward to curbing the situation. Has his visit yielded any result?

Well, I can say yes. However, we are presuming that the coming of President Bola Tinubu to the state will help us, and it is yielding results already. Because the president came here by himself and questioned why there was no arrest being made. Now arrests have been made in Nasarawa state. The governor has confirmed and the commissioner of police also confirmed that people arrested are related to the Benue massacre.

Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, has occasionally said that the attackers of Benue communities are foreign mercenaries and not the cattle-rearing Fulanis. What’s your take on that?

The fact is that the killing in Benue state is being carried out by Fulani herders terrorists. They are armed terrorists. And because they want to occupy our territory, they invite Fulanis from other parts of the world to join hands together with them to cause this mayhem. So, it is not a question of foreigners. Calling them foreigners is unnecessarily ambiguous. The fact is that it is Fulani cattle herders that are carrying out these calculated and genocidal activities because they are raping, they are kidnapping, they are killing, they are burning people and all of that. They are Fulani herders terrorists.

In recent times, the two paramount traditional rulers of the state; the Tor-Tiv and the Och’Idoma gave an ultimatum to the Fulani herders to leave the state. Do you think this last massacre is as a result of the ultimatum?

The recent massacre of over 200 people was not a result of the ultimatum because, before, during and after the ultimatum, they attacked our people and they are still carrying out this attack. The reason they are attacking us in this manner is that the anti-open grazing law is being relaxed in the state. If the law had been implemented, this thing would not have been happening. They are resisting because Benue have come together with one voice from the youth, from the traditional council that have asked them to evacuate because this is farming season and Benue people needed to go back to their farms.

These attacks have forced a lot of Benue people to evacuate their ancestral homes. What is the level of support from the federal and state government to the people affected?

I can tell you for free that there is no adequate support. Not from the federal government or the state government. And the state government has not been supporting people from the Benue south senatorial district, that is, the Idoma speaking area. I am from Agatu. There is no IDPs camp in Agatu. We have been attacked on several occasions and nothing has been done. Houses have not been rebuilt. People are not even rehabilitated because of their traumatic nature. People are not psychologically brought back from their trauma. They are at their own mercies. No one, not even the government, has supported them. And things are very expensive in those areas.

As I speak to you, even when SEMA took food to IDP camps in Guma, Makurdi and other Local Government Areas of the state, they did not take anything to Agatu, they did not take to Apa, they did not take to Otukpo. I am telling you this because I’m at the forefront of this. So there is no support from the state government and no adequate support from the federal government. And I also want to tell you that the supports are being politicised.