Attack Against Any Of Us is attack On All Of Us – MBF

• Demands Development Commission

BY AHMED TUKUR, Akwanga – The Middle Belt Forum (MBF) after the meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) that took place at the weekend in Akwanga, Nasarawa State, declared that any attack on any community in the Middle Belt Region shall henceforth be deemed as an attack on the entire Middle Belt.

The Forum also called for the creation of the Middle Belt Development Commission (MBDC) to address the challenges created by the activities of terrorists in the Middle Belt Region.

Declaring this in a communiqué released by the Forum and signed by the MBF National President, Dr Pogu Bitrus, on Saturday September 11, 2021, urged its members to henceforth protect themselves against attacks, adding that “people of the Middle Belt Region should rise up and defend themselves in the face of governments abandoning their Constitutional responsibility of defending them or seeming complicity. Furthermore, NEC resolves that an attack on any of our communities is henceforth, considered as an attack on all Communities in the Middle Belt Region with the attendant responses and consequences,” the communique noted.

Parts of the communique read: “That the incessant invasions by Fulani militia on several communities across the Middle Belt Region in particular, and other parts of the country in general, have assumed genocidal/ethnic cleansing scale. “These attacks have left in their wake mind-boggling massacres and devastations in our communities and displacement of indigenous Peoples to various Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. NEC calls on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to return displaced communities to their ancestral lands, given the fact that territory can no longer be acquired in the 21st century by the use of force.  NEC also calls on the government to identify all IDPs in the Middle Belt Region and provide relief materials for them.

“NEC calls on the Federal Government to identify, apprehend and bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity to justice so as to serve as a deterrent to others. Consequently, NEC calls on the government to set up an agency to be called the Middle Belt Development Commission (MBDC) to serve as an intervention agency in addressing the challenges caused by the activities of these terrorists

“That many schools and places of worship in the Middle Belt Region have remained closed due to the criminal activities of these Fulani kidnappers and bandits. NEC regrets that many school children and other hapless citizens are still languishing in the dens of kidnappers. NEC further appeals to the government to take urgent steps to rescue those in captivity.

“The MBF insists that the Federal Government must come clean and yield to the demand by the Nigerian public to unveil the identities of the sponsors of Boko Haram, especially the 400 Bureau de change operators as identified by the UAE authorities.”

The MBF also commended Governor Samuel Ortom for standing up for Benue State and other ethnic nationalities of the Middle Belt. According to the communique, “NEC commends the southern governors and some governors in the Middle Belt and their State Assemblies for their courage in passing Anti-Open Grazing Laws in their states. NEC condemns in very strong terms the call by Miyetti Allah on its members not to obey the Anti-Open Grazing Laws duly passed in their states, threatening to make states that attempt to implement such a law ungovernable. NEC views this as a clear threat to national security, and demands that Miyetti Allah officials should be arrested, investigated and prosecuted under our anti-terrorism laws.

“NEC reviews the zoning arrangement as it relates to the Presidency in Nigeria and considers the current arrangement of power rotation between the North and the South as unfair as it has failed to recognize the Middle Belt geopolitical block.

“NEC, therefore, calls on the political actors in Nigeria particularly political parties to henceforth reflect the zoning arrangements for power to rotate between North, South and the Middle Belt.

“NEC acknowledges and commends Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state for his resilient stance in the defence of the rights of the Benue people and for his courage and foresight in making the anti-open grazing law even in the face of threats by Miyetti Allah and those other forces that seek to Fulanise and enslave the Benue people and the rest of the Middle Belt. It is for his foresight that today, the entire Southern Nigeria has adopted his position based on the validity of his position.

“By the same token, NEC commends Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for his consistent struggle for the Rule of Law and true Federalism, particularly the recent judgment of the Federal High Court on the Value Added Tax (VAT) which has opened the door for the commencement of the struggle for Restructuring of Nigeria.”

The meeting had in attendance Chairman of the MBF Elders’ Council and former old Plateau State Military Administrator, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (retd); former Military Administrator of Rivers, Gen. Zamani Lekwot (retd); former governor of Plateau State, Sen Jonah David Jang, Senator Barnabas Gemade, among others.