Nobel Laureate, Professor Woke Soyinka, has urged
the federal government to seek international assistance to curb the menace of
killings being carried out by Fulani herdsmen nationwide.
He stated this on Thursday during a courtesy call on Benue
State Governor, Samuel Ortom, at the Benue Peoples House in Makurdi.
Soyinka attended the 35th anniversary of Senator
Suemo Chia's novel, Adan Wade Kohol Ga, written in Tiv.
He said: "If the government cannot cope, it
should not shy away from asking for international help."
When human lives are concerned in their thousands
and so on, as it was observed everywhere all over the world, those countries
where our military has served before can come to our assistance, I think there
should be no business of national integrity, national pride and so on.
"People are dying, this government cannot
cope, please just ask for international help and I know they're ready and
willing to come to our aid.
"Just like refusal to recognise, and at the
critical moment, the nature of a particular problem that has been the basis of
the massacres going on in this region, especially Benue State. There's no any
other word for it. Let’s not play around with the euphemisms. No other word but
ethnic cleansing. There's no other definition for what have been going on here.
And it's very sad to me personally to see that a country like Nigeria, with so
much human talent, has failed to learn the lesson of the history of places like
Rwanda."
In his remark, Ortom stated that what is happening
in the state is ethnic cleansing and Jihad.
According to him, "This is not a hidden
agenda; it's known and those people who are perpetrating it did say it. They're
not hidden. They held press conferences, they came out and said they were going
to resist our law, and that they were going to do ethnic cleansing. It's about
Jihad, it's about taking over the land, it's not about herders and farmers
clashes.
“They said it clearly and it's written, and we have
the documents, and I've reported them to the security agencies. I'm in
agreement with you but as law-abiding citizens, we don’t even have cutlasses to
fight back. We cannot use any weapon to fight back; we depend on the law
enforcement agencies. Even the cutlasses that we used to have were taken away
by security agencies. Our Dane guns have been surrendered to the Inspector
General of Police, including those that were licensed. So we are left in the
hands of the security agents. Those of them who are posted to Benue State are
doing their best and they have been victims of these attacks too. Several
policemen have been killed in the course of this crisis. Soldiers and Civil
Defence officers are not spared. State Security Service (SSS) is not also
spared. They have been killed and slaughtered like animals. So, like you
rightly said, this is not a matter of ringworm but real cancer.
“If there were any other word stronger than cancer,
I would have said what is happening in Benue State is more than cancer. And
like you rightly observed, it is our responsibility to rise up to defend the
unity of this country and to defend our integrity as leaders."
The governor commended Soyinka for his solidarity
and President Muhammadu Buhari for upgrading the military action in the state,
and expressed hope that the invaders would be flushed out.
Ortom also disclosed that several people were
attacked while returning from the funeral mass of two priest and some
parishioner last Tuesday.
He said there were casualties.
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