By Ayodele Oni
As Nigerians are preparing for head count by the National Population Commission, (NPC) Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has seen reason why the exercise should not hold as scheduled.
The Governor has asked the federal government to suspend the exercise until all Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs), are returned to their ancestral homes.
Governor Ortom made the call on Thursday, when he received a delegation from the Middle Belt Forum led by its President, Dr Bitrus Pogu, at Benue People’s House, Makurdi.
The governor pointed out that close to two million indigenes of Benue State were in the IDP camps and would not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.
Governor Ortom stated that what the federal government must do before carrying out the census was to ensure adequate security for the IDPs in Benue and elsewhere in the country to go back to their homes to be counted.
“This is because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities.
“There was so much injustice, bias and tribalism going on in the country that both the leaders and the people were expected to correct it before the country could move forward.”
He particularly decried the sustained attacks on Benue communities by herdsmen over the years in which more than six thousand people have died and property worth billions of naira destroyed with the federal government doing little to help.
“In Benue State alone, we have lost over six thousand people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed, and we are still counting because others are in the hospital.
“Benue people will remain law abiding citizens because they believe in Nigeria and have worked for the unity of the country.”
The President Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, in his earlier remarks, also corroborated what the Governor Ortom said and urged the Federal Government to suspend the proposed national population and housing census because he believed that the exercise “was coming with a hidden agenda.”
Dr Pogu also frowned at the level at which Fulani herdsmen had been killing people of the Middle Belt in connivance with other Fulani socio-cultural groups like Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM, openly claiming responsibility without being arrested.
He said what had made the activities of the Fulani in the communities within the Middle Belt more frightening was that after killing and displacing the villagers, “the Fulani came and renamed those villages.”
 Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has seen reason why the exercise should not hold as scheduled.){kind=link}