When Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State assumed office on May 29, 2015, he made a solemn pronouncement to work in harmony with the various ethnic groups in the state to bring about enduring peace that would further attract foreign investors to come and invest for the development of the state. One of the bold steps the governor took in this direction was the initiation of an amnesty programme where hundreds of youths who were hitherto terrorising rural communities surrendered more than 400 weapons to the government.
Beneficiaries of the initiative and thepeople of the state are now smiling following the return of relative peace, while all acts of criminality have equally been reduced to the barest minimum. Following closely is the fact that the intractable feud between between Benue farmers and Fulani herdsmen in which many people were massacred has also been reduced through the instrumentality of critical stakeholders from the warring sides in collaboration with the governments of the two states.
But the governor’s sense of ecumenism and hope for a peaceful Benue State appears to be a tool that soldiers as well as officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force capitalised on recently when they demolished hundreds of houses in some communities in the state capital, Makurdi, chasing away the residents. The military personnel claimed that the residents were occupying the land illegally.
Mention must be made of an incident in May this year when authorities of the Tactical Air Command of the NAF invaded Akpen village, a suburb of Makurdi located off Kilometre 6 along Makurdi-Gboko Road with bulldozers and demolished many buildings.
This development was greeted by protests that led to the blocking of the highway for more than seven hours and a resultant gridlock. Hundreds of air force personnel were drafted to the scene to disperse the protesters when our correspondent visited the scene, while motorists plying the route carried green leaves in solidarity with the action.
At least 10,000 people were rendered homeless as a result of the demolition, while victims were spotted removing food items, cooking utensils and other belongings from the debris of the demolished buildings. It was a painful exercise because most of the houses demolished were those of the poor, while those of the rich were spared. NAF authorities claimed the land belonged to them hence most houses were marked for demolition.
But whether the matter was settled out of court or not, the same NAF authorities early this month again stormed Ugondo Mega Layout Phase 2, located on the outskirts of Makurdi with dozens of airmen in three trucks and pulled down more than 20 houses legitimately allocated to the residents of the area by the state government.
The residents, in an interview, told Sunday Telegraph that the detachment led by a senior officer came in three trucks conveying no fewer than 200 armed airmen. They immediately started destroying houses already occupied and those under construction as well as harassing and beating up the residents.
The senior officer, according to the victims, ordered his men to beat up the landlords including women. Most of whom were taken to the hospital for treatment, while their properties worth millions of naira as well as working tools belonging to labourers were allegedly carted away.
The airmen also reportedly destroyed bags of cement, including those mixed with sand for plastering, septic tanks and electrical fittings, manhandled a lecturer at the Benue State University and forcefully took N3,500 from a widow.
Those who spoke to Sunday Telegraph in tears but pleaded to be anonymous for security reasons, insisted that the land was allocated to them with papers by the state government, and expressed surprise why the air force was trying to forcibly take their properties. A BSU lecturer, Pila Nasera, told Sunday Telegraph that the senior airforce officer ordered him to lie face down and kiss the ground before he was given the beating of his life.
Another resident, Mrs. Gladys Gaadi, alleged that her electrical fittings and other belongings were vandalised, adding that she was given a week to leave her house or lose all her belongings when the airmen come for proper demolition. They said both the state government and NAF authorities had brokered a truce to compensate the residents. They blamed the delay in government’s response for the action of the airforce.
“The state government had said it had allocated the land to its people, and promised to compensate the airforce. They agreed to take compensation, now government is delaying and that was why they decided to vent their anger on us. They want to push us to go and fight the government but we don’t have the capacity to do that,” said one of the victims. They stated that when they were building their houses, nobody came to stop them.
They appealed to Governor Samuel Ortom to wade into the matter and ensure it is fully resolved. In a reaction, the paramount ruler of Makurdi metropolis, Chief Sule Abenga, condemned the attack on his subjects by the airforce and appealed to his people to be calm and await government’s response.
He stated that he had hosted a senior delegation from the Tactical Air Command in Makurdi, where the issue was thrashed out, and wondered why they still went out to visit mayhem on his people. He also condemned what he called the ‘selective destruction of houses,’ as most of those spared belonged to rich people.
He noted that the alleged looting and destruction of the houses by the airforce was unfortunate and implored the service to embrace due process in tackling the matter. Efforts to get the reaction of the TAC failed as the spokesman was said to have been transferred to Yola in Adamawa State.
Also, the state government’s reaction could not be obtained at press-time. Another painful encounter the local people had with the military, it would be recalled, was in the North Bank area of the state capita, when soldiers from the Nigeria Army School of Military Engineering, in August this year, attacked residents of the area and burnt their vehicles. Many ended up in hospitals. The question on the lips of the citizens is: “Where do the soldiers want us to go?
This is our land. We have no where to go again? Government should come to our rescue. NAF officials want us to die. Enough is enough, enough of this brutality.”
