…..demand end to Mbaivur/Mbasombo crisis

..Speaker, lawmakers drenched in rain appeal for calm

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Aggrieved women and youths in Gwer East Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue state, Tuesday defied the heavy downpour in parts of the state and took over the busy Makurdi-Aliade highway in protest over the lingering bloody crisis between the people of Mbaivur and Mbasombo in Ikpayongo axis of the LGA.

The women came out in their numbers to occupy the major highway which links the state with the Southern and Northern parts of the country.

The development left road users and commuters stranded for several hours as long queues of cars and trucks coming from the South to the North and those from the Northern part of the country conveying goods and commuters to the South were left stranded.

The angry protesters who sang solidarity songs as they matched for hundreds of meters to register their anger over the needless bloodbath in their communities lamented the incessant killings and razing of houses in the two warring sister communities.

It took the intervention of the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Mr. Aondona Dajoh, and his colleagues who were all drenched in rainwater, to calm the angry protesters.

The Woman Leader of  Mbakough Kindred, Mrs. Veronica Orbunde who addressed the lawmakers said the peaceful demonstration was to draw government’s attention to the use of militia by the feuding parties, who rape innocent women in their farms and recently kidnapped some of their husbands for no justifiable reasons.

She said, “we are tired of this crisis and we are pleading with the sister communities to end this senseless killings and destruction of properties in our communities.”

Addressing the huge crowd after inspecting the destruction at the Ikpayongo market, the Speaker who expressed worry at the development appealed to the warring communities to embrace peace and stop the incessant killings and destruction of properties, assuring that the government would deploy more security personnel to the area to protect the lives and properties of the people.

He also appealed to the aggrieved protesters to open up the federal highway to allow stranded travellers the use of the road.

The lawmaker representing Gwer East State Constituency, Elias Audu who decried the unending crisis between the sister communities called for the immediate deployment of more security personnel to the area to forestall further attacks in the communities.

His Makurdi South counterpart, Mr. Douglas Akya raised concern over the humanitarian crisis in the area lamenting that many victims who were sheltered at Apir were in dire need relief materials.

The Mbaivur/Mbasombo crisis which was trigger by a dispute over land between the neighbouring communities has lingered for some years and all measures by the previous government including the suspension of the traditional rulers of both communities failed to rest the crisis.