By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Executive Secretary of Benue State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Dr. Emmanuel Shior has raised concern over the increasing spate of attacks on Benue communities by armed herdsmen lamenting that the development is worsening the humanitarian crisis in the state.

He noted that the coming of the dry season has compelled the marauders to make more incursions into Benue communities leading to the sacking of such communities and displacement of the locals who are moving in their numbers into Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps thereby worsening an already bad situation.

Dr. Shior who spoke in Makurdi decried the indifference of the Federal Government to the humanitarian crisis in the state noting that the state government was already overwhelmed because the burden was too much for a state government to shoulder.

He said “The population of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Benue state keeps swelling because the attacks by armed herdsmen have not stopped. Usually the dry season is the time when these armed herders renew and intensify their attacks.

“This is the time they return to the state in their numbers to continue to kill our people and continue to occupy our rural communities. So the attacks have not stopped, the population of the IDPs keeps increasing.

“This is happening without considerable support from the Federal Governmen. Benue state government has continued to should the major responsibility of looking after the IDPs.

“And we have said it repeatedly that it is not good enough on the part of the Federal Government, because a government that is responsive and responsible cannot abandon her responsibility; and cannot abandon the teeming population of IDPs that we have in Benue state and think that the state government ought to shoulder that alone.

“It is unfortunate but we are hoping that even the government at the centre is counting days and is about to leave. So even if the President doesn’t consider it important to intervene in the challenge of IDPs in Benue, we are hoping that perhaps another government may come and  address it.

“So we are hopeful that the challenge of IDPs will not be here forever. Governor Samuel Ortom is also thinking of, perhaps, not leaving the IDPs behind at the end of his administration. We are working towards ensuring that even if help does not come from the Federal Government, we will work in partnership with other humanitarian partners including foreign partners who will hopefully assist the Governor to have the IDPs return to their ancestral homes before he leaves office.”