Anti-open grazing law: We’re ready to go to Hague- Benue govt

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Benue State government has expressed its determination to go the whole hog in the implementation of the anti-grazing law.
Deputy Governor of the state, Engr. Benson Abounu said this yesterday while addressing a group known as Strict Movement Against Ravages in Benue state.
Engr. Abounu who stood in for his boss, Samuel Ortom stressed that, as a law abiding government that believes in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, they will not sit down, fold their arms and watch people come here to perpetrate impunity and to force their will on our ancestrally inherited land and the constitutionally guaranteed lives of the people.
“If it means going the whole hog. If it means going to the International Criminal Court at the Hague. This government will go the whole hog to protect the lives of the people.
“We will not shy away from our responsibilities to protect the lives of all the inhabitants of Benue state against any forceful perpetration of criminal injustices.
“That is why this law came into being, and from November 1, 2017 the law will come into full force because for close to five years herdsmen killed thousands of Benue people and it was almost becoming a pogrom,” Abounu said.
Rev. Fr. Solomon Mffa who spoke on behalf of displaced persons decried the incessant silence of President Muhammadu Buhari over the killings of I innocent persons in the State, noting that such act is worst than corruption.
“Money stolen can be recovered but human life once taken cannot be recovered. The president should speak out and do something about the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons in the State”, the clergyman said.
Leaders of Yoruba Kayode Oduniga and Igbo Communities Iwu Everest pledged their support to the law, averring that it is for future generation..
The group had earlier marched to the State House of Assembly where the Speaker Terkimbir Ikyange promised to give the Executive support in full implementation of the law.