Benue groups petition defense chief with documentary evidence on killings

From Uche Nnorom Makurdi

Three social cultural groups in Benue State comprising of Mdzough U Tiv, the Idoma National Forum, INF, and the Omi Ny’ Igede, ONI, have petitioned the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin with documentary evidence exposing those behind the Benue massacre and appealed to him to arrest them.
A copy of the petition which was made available to our correspondent at the weekend, came on the heels of the recent claim by the Acting Director of Defence Information, Brig. Gen. John Agim who said that the military has not arrested the leadership of Miyetti Allah because it had no compelling and concrete evidence linking them to the killings in the state.
In the petition signed by Chief Edward Ujege, President General of MUT, Mr. Adoya Amali, President, INF, and Comrde Benjamin Okpa, President General ONI, the leaders referred the Chief of Defence Staff to the attached evidence supposedly exposing the involvement of leaders of Miyetti Allah to the killings in the state.
The leaders lamented that they had in the past made concerted efforts through letters, personal visits and pleas to relevant authorities to stop the killings and have the masterminds arrested in order to give the people of the state justice but all to no avail.
Part of the petition read, “apart from this, several other letters were sent to security chiefs for the arrest of the leadership of Miyetti Allah, by groups and well-meaning Nigerians but nothing was done to prevent the further unleash of mayhem on the people of Benue state.
“We also made efforts to visit and brief President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter but when the efforts to pay a courtesy call on him failed, we wrote him an open letter in November, 2017.
“We further, wrote similar letters to all the security chiefs and our letters were ignored. We noticed that the body language and utterances of some top officials of the Federal Government and Presidency seemed to have encouraged action by our enemies in the killing episode.
“We are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that, there are ample evidences to prosecute Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore in contradiction of the statement made by Brig. Gen. John Agim, “If Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore are prosecuted, it would serve as a deterrent to stop the killings that have visited Nigeria, especially the Benue valley, but the utterances and body language of the Federal Government has not helped matters.
“We are appealing to the Federal Government as good citizens, patriotic and lovers of the Nigerian nation that they can still make corrections by taking proper action.”