By Peter Duru, Makurdi
It is not out of place to tag Benue state as the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, capital of the country with over 1.6million persons living in camps spread across the state.
The state government has continued to grapple with the IDPs challenge since since 2018 shortly after the attacks on Logo and Guma Local Government Areas, LGAs, of the state by armed herdsmen. In what looked like a coordinated attack, they sacked several communities in the LGAs, killing scores, including women and children.
Since those bloody attacks which many described as a pogrom, Benue communities have continued to witness ceaseless incursions by the marauders, a situation that had invariably worsened the humanitarian crisis in the state as the number of IDPs continue to swell.
For close to four years most of these IDPs who largely depend on the intervention of the state government for survival, have lived in a necessitous condition which is a clear indication that the state government is struggling with the burden of catering for them as their numbers continue to grow in the face of more attacks.
The mood in the camps, when Arewa Voice visited, was that of despondency as the inmates continue to lament their neglect by the federal government and their heartrending condition in the camps.
While the IDPs continually eulogized Governor Samuel Ortom for not abandoning them to their fate at the time of need, the same was not their disposition when compared to the federal government’s response to their plight.
The IDPs at the Tse Yandev and Abagena IDPs camps in the outskirts of Makurdi town who separately spoke to Arewa Voice lamented that the federal government has not shown any form of concern to their plight even when it was obvious that the state government had been overwhelmed by the prevailing IDPs situation in the state.
The IDPs, who said that they were prepared to return to their ancestral homes, lamented that their continued stay in the camps had left them living as destitute. Their continued stay in the camps, they said, has derailed the course of the lives of their children who cannot attend school.
They also regretted that they could no longer cope with the challenge of living in IDPs camps, and appealed to the relevant authorizes to restore peace and normalcy in their various communities to enable them return home.
The IDPs called on the federal government to ensure the rehabilitation and reconstruction of their homes as being done in the North East to enable them return home with their families to pick up the bits and pieces of their lives.
They maintained that they were holed up in the camps because they were helpless and had no where to return to since their ancestral homes and farmland had been completely destroyed by the invaders.
The Chairman of the Tse Yandev IDPs camp, Gabriel Yev who hails from Guma LGA said that most of the IDPs are still in the camps because they do not have where to return to.
His words: “We all want to return home but where are we returning to? Our homes and farmland have all been destroyed and we cannot return home for about four years now because there is no where to return to.
“We lost our farms, our houses and the food we stored in our barns after armed herdsmen attacked our communities. The state government has been taking care of us which is inadequate. Unfortunately the federal government has failed to come to our aid.
“Even the promise they made to rebuild our homes is not being fulfilled. Moreover, some of those who tried to return home were killed by armed herdsmen who have taken over some of our communities. So we are appealing to the military to also chase this people out of communities because they have taken over our land.”
Grace Akojime who also hails from Umenge in Guma Local Government Area, said that she was prepared to return home if there was guarantee that armed herdsmen have been dislodged from her community and assistance would be provided the IDPs to enable them go back home.
“Our destroyed homes should be rebuilt and security restored. If that is done, the IDPs should then be supported to return home and we will all happily go home.
“But a situation where we have been abandoned to the state government as if we are not Nigerians, has given us reasons to believe that the federal government does not care about the humanitarian crisis in Benue state and it does not tell well of the present federal government.”
On her part, mother of three, Mne Abaha from Kasiyo in Guma LGA said the inability of her three children to resume normal schooling should be enough reason to want to go back home to enable the children return to school.
“But I cannot go back home because those that attempted to go back were either killed on their way or murdered in their farms by armed herdsmen who have occupied the farms in our communities.
“We can all see that life in the camp is dehumanizing. We live on charity and we cannot farm to feed our families. It is unacceptable for a Tiv man who is renown for his farming prowess to live in a camp.
“That is why we want to go back home and we want the federal government to help us go back to our ancestral homes as being done in the North East. We are tired of remaining in the camps.
“Those who have taken over our communities should be dislodged and the federal government should fulfill its promise to help us resettle in our communities to be able to pick up our lives again. It is being done in the North East, why is the federal government not keen to replicate the same intervention in Benue state to enable us return back home?” she queried.
The post Why we haven’t returned to our ancestral homes – Benue IDPs lament appeared first on Vanguard News.
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