By Peter Duru – Makurdi

Benue traditional rulers and stakeholders have blamed the lingering communal crisis in the state on the youths who enjoy the protection of elders in their communities.

They, however, vowed not to surrender Benue to criminals but take far reaching punitive measures against those fingered in the conflicts irrespective of social standing or political affiliation.

This was part of the decisions reached Monday at the end of the first Tiv tribe Security and Stakeholders meeting in Makurdi which drew attendance from the 14 Tiv speaking Local Government Areas of the state.

Reading the resolution of the meeting, Governor Samuel Ortom said, “All the stakeholders were deeply concerned about the rising state of insecurity especially in Tiv land including herdsmen attacks, communal clashes, fetish activities that have been going on and land disputes.

“We took time to assess the situation and we came to a conclusion that all these crisis are needless and they must cease. There must be peace for our people because there can be no meaningful development without peace.

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“We have decided that henceforth no one will be spared if he is culpable of causing any form of crisis in Benue state.

“We have so far identified the youths in Tiv land for being culpable of creating most of the crisis that are going on but most times they are shielded by their elders and their communities.

“But we will not surrender our leadership to the youths because it is an abomination. We as elders and stakeholders must take up the responsibility to provide leadership to the youths in our various communities.

“We have also agreed to expand our security network from the state to the kindred level to help us nip some of the crisis in the bud and also be proactive to ensure that criminals did not take over our communities.

“We have also said that we are not going to surrender our lands to criminals to take over and give us leadership. This government, traditional rulers, stakeholders and security agencies will work closely together to ensure that we eliminate criminality in our society so that we can join forces to fight the pandemic we have today,” he added.

At the meeting were senators George Akume, Iyorchia Ayu, Gabriel Suswam, the Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse and other notable personalities of Tiv extraction.

Vanguard News Nigeria.