Governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom speaks about internally displaced people and farmer’s violent clashes from Logo and Guma communities at Gbajimba IDPs camp outskirts of Makurdi, capital of Benue State in northcentral Nigeria on January 4, 2018.Nomadic cattle herders have all but left Benue state, driven away by fighting over access to resources and a new law banning migratory herding, an age-old practice necessary for the survival of the livestock. More than 100 people have been killed since early January, with 100,000 fleeing their homes to safety, according to the local emergency management agency (SEMA). After months of inaction, the Nigerian army announced the imminent deployment of troops for “Operation Cat Race” in several city states, including Benue to end the violence. / AFP PHOTO / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI
Seeks review, more indigenes in Immigration
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom says the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Protocol on Movement is constituting a security challenge to Nigeria.He therefore urged for its review.
Playing host yesterday to the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammed Babandede, at the Benue Peoples House in Makurdi, the governor noted: “If the ECOWAS protocol has become a cog in the wheel of progress of Nigeria, it is high time we reviewed it.”
He urged that the procedures for trans-human movement by member countries should be strictly abided with.Ortom suggested that the provisions for quarantine services for livestock and prohibition of movement of armed herders should be enforced for improved security in the country.
According to him, intelligence reports had revealed that the heightened insecurity in the land has connection with foreign herdsmen who gain access without valid documents and compliance with extant laws.
Challenge the Immigration authorities to check movements of persons and herds into the country, the governor pledged his continued support to the service. He pledged to tackle the insecurity in the state.He pleaded for the recruitment of more Benue indigenes into the agency, even as he promised to provide land for a building to house its officers.
Babandede, while condoling with the government and the people over the killings in the state by suspected, said he was in Benue to patrol the border at Abande in Kwande council area with a view to checking the influx of illegal foreigners into the country.
ECOWAS protocol undermining Nigeria’s security, says Ortom
