''BENUE, A Divided People''- Emmanuel Eche-Ofun John.

On Wednesday, the day a protest was billed to hold in Makurdi, the Benue state capital, against the mindless killings by suspected Fulani Herdsmen, I woke up with high hopes and expectation.
I was happy that, once again, the Benue youths have decided to speak out against the evil hovering the state. My happiness was that, in addition to the ‘Save Agatu’ protest that was recently and successfully held in Abuja, the voice of the Benue people would be heard by the appropriate quarters to bring to an end the butchery going on in the state.


The protest tagged ‘MOVEMENT AGAINST FULANI OCCUPATION’ (MAFO) was billed to start from Cool Park, to Wurukum round-about, and to the State House of Assembly complex, where a letter was to be handed over to the Speaker. As early as 7am, pictures of beautifully dressed and lively Benue youths had started surfacing in cyberspace as all was getting set for the peaceful protest.


From my home here in Abuja, I was monitoring the rally and praying that it turned out successfully, like the Abuja own. No sane Benue citizen is happy with what is happening in the state; where villages are sacked and burnt down at the slightest provocation by external aggressor; where peasant farmers are barred from going to their farms; where women are raped and abducted at will; where lives are wasted with reckless abandon; where citizens have become refugees in their own land. Ours’ is a state of pains, tears, woes and bitterness. A state that appears helpless.


A typical Benue person is peaceful and accommodating, that’s why the youths would rather embark on peaceful protests to register their grievances than taking laws in their hands as is common in some states of the federation. What’s happening in Benue today where TOTAL strangers would come and lord it over citizens and even kill them at will can NEVER happen in states like Kano, Oyo, Rivers, Katsina, etc, without adequate reprisal attacks and even TOTAL annihilation of friends and relatives of the suspected murderers, anywhere they may be found in the state.


So, when the youths besieged Makurdi for yet another peaceful protest, since the killings have refused to stop, I was quietly praying for its success. And just when they were to start the peaceful procession, the police stopped them!! Acting on ‘order from above’.


I had not felt bad recently the way I felt that moment. I quickly inquired from some Organizers of the rally if they didn’t get clearance from the police, they said they sent a letter to the Commissioner of police TWO WEEKS earlier. I cried. I cried, not because of the millions of children, women and aged in IDP camps across the state; I cried, not because of the hundreds of men, women and Orphans who traveled from far and near for the rally, I cried because my state, the once UNITED and PEACEFUL state has become so polarized, politicized, divided and chaotic, like never before. I saw the ‘order from above’ as a political ‘order’, which made me to wonder if we are more interested in politics in my state now than human lives.


The shock I received later in the evening when some self-appointed ‘Media Aides’ to the governor started jubilating over the cancellation of the protest almost killed me. According to these ‘Aides’, the Protesters were PDP agents sponsored in the name of ‘protest’ to blackmail the governor, Chief Samuel Ortom. They hailed the police for stopping the protest. I couldn’t believe what I was reading.


This cannot be the Benue I knew, my Benue. How a protest against terrorists and KNOWN common enemies is a campaign of calumny against the state government beats my imagination. Is our governor the one sponsoring the marauders? Are the senseless killers members of APC? If the ‘Save Agatu’ protest in the FCT could be arranged and held successfully in less than one week, with police permission and coverage, why won’t a similar protest by citizens in their state capital not hold even after TWO weeks of preparation? My heart bleeds for my state.


If the killings in Benue that have received condemnations from people around the world do not worry any Benue citizen, then that person is a demon. Any Benue citizen who sees the aborted MAFO peace rally as a gang-up by PDP agents against the APC-led state government is not a free-born, such person should be thrown into the evil forest to dwell with wild animals.


My governor should not allow himself to be misled by these disgruntled elements and charlatans parading themselves as his ‘Media Aides’, these hungry, violent and directionless fellows are doing more harms than good to his hard-earned integrity and reputation. Like president #Buhari, he should not hesitate to disown this group of rascals who are bent on making more enemies than friends for him.


To the MAFO protesters; keep hope alive. We must not succumb to sheer blackmail and intimidation. The task of securing our dear state against satanic invaders is a collective one. We must not stop talking until the world hears us and puts an end to the barbarism. We must rise above party, religious and ethnic sentiments to protect our state, that’s the only state we have now.


Benue, In God We Trust!!