Former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Botwev Orhii has suggested that the government should 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 EXTERNAL ATTACKS.
Dr Orhii also said that 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.
Orhii, who suggested these while condemning in strong terms, the massacre of more than 200 innocent and unsuspecting persons in Yelewata Community, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, said that Benue Leaders of Thoughts 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 ex-DG of NAFDAC said the recent killings of vulnerable women, children and elderly men by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Yelewata and other similar massacres across the State were 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 had individually expressed concerns about the genocidal activities of the criminal herdsmen, yet they had 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.
Orhii said; “
He lamented that Benue State, once described as “Food Basket of the Nation,” had unfortunately been turned into a Hobbesian State where “life is short and brutish because of the murderous attacks of the suspected Fulani armed herdsmen.”
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.
He however, expressed hope that the concerted efforts of the federal and state governments to beef up security and step up humanitarian interventions would bring succour to the embattled communities and assuage the pervasive tension in the state.
