The security situation in Benue state caused by the invasion on a militia group is deteriorating, the Benue state governor Gabriel Suswam lamented on Thursday.
For a while now the farmers, Fulani and the Tiv ethnic groups have been at war with each other . The war has been reported to be a classical multifaceted war; stimulated, driven and fuelled by environmental, political and cultural stressors.
Suswam who said he had come to brief President Goodluck Jonathan on the current situation in the state note that the people of the state were becoming worried by the invasion of the militia and the destruction that has trailed it.
"Well, like I did say, the situation in Benue that is the crisis between the Nomads and farmers have deteriorated. And I have come to brief the president.
"Certain actions have been taken by the President to curb the continuation of that crisis but it is getting very serious, and I'm a bit worried and the entire people of Benue are very worried how these people (the militias) in their thousands are moving freely and causing the kinds of destructions that they are causing in Benue state" he said .
Suswam said he hoped that with some of the actions taken by the President, "that this situation would be calmed down".
Fielding questions from journalists after meeting with the President, the governor said though the situation was not connected with the security situation in the country, people were however taking advantage of the situation.
"Well, you can isolate that. I think some people are taking advantage of the security situation in the country to further creat fear on our people. And the unfortunate thing is that the people in Benue are basically farmers and these Fulani militias have taken over some parts of the lands. Some people have ran away into town and so, down the road we are going to have economic issues.
"And so, these people must necessarily be dislodged. Those decisions have been taken. We must dislodge them because from all indications they want to form another base, because large expanse of lands where you have sparsely populated people what they are doing there, they are farming" he said.
The governor further said the militia settle and start carrying out attacks places like Nassarawa and Abuja would no longer be safe.
"And once they set up their bases in these places, they can attack anywhere from there. Kogi is not safe, Nasarawa is not safe even Abuja is not safe. So, they must dislodge them now that they are just settling down, they are in their numbers and they have all kinds of weapons with them.
"And but like I said, the President has taken some very serious steps and we believe that they would be dislodged otherwise, it is going to be another issue of what is happening in other parts of the country" he added.
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