The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has kicked against the proposal of Vice President Kashim Shetima to build Fulani colonies in the state and others.
Recall that the VP had last week disclosed at a public function in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, that the present administration had approved the construction of 1,000 houses in Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, and Benue states with all the ancillary facilities of schools, clinics, veterinary clinics and ranches for the Fulani community.
However, the PDP in the state has called on the governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, to exclude Benue from the list of the said housing construction.
In a statement issued on Monday by the party’s publicity secretary, Bemgba Iortyom, the PDP asserted that they are sure the Benue people would reject the plan rightly because establishing Fulani colonies is like a ‘deathly serious nature.’
The party recalled that the last administration of the state under the PDP and former governor, Samuel Ortom, had rejected the proposal federally; hence, the incumbent governor should rise to the occasion.
According to them, unlike other beneficiary states with sizeable Fulani populations and more than enough land, Benue State lacks the land mass for such projects as Fulani colonies.
The PDP submitted that “In other words, in those other states, it could be natural to have such colonies where a Fulani population is already in situ and which would seamlessly be accommodated therein.
“Benue has no such indigenous Fulani population with land holdings where such a colony could be established.
“Secondly, it is unjust and ultimately insensitive to have a colony established for the Fulani with all the facilities for modern living in a state where victims of the genocidal atrocities committed by those same Fulani are still displaced from their lands and means of livelihood and living in sub-human conditions in camps which bear semblance to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during 2nd World War.
“That promise by VP Osinbajo has not been fulfilled to this moment, and the displaced persons in the IDP camps are still even to date being attacked and killed by Fulani herdsmen right there in the camps and dare not venture near their plundered and desolate ancestral lands to scavenge for food.”
