Tiv leaders say Buhari will not get one vote in Benue State in 2019 following Fulani herdsmen attacks

TIV community leaders have declared that President Muhammadu Buhari can forget about obtaining votes in Benue State come the 2019 elections following his indifference to the spate of killings in the state by Fulani cattle herdsmen.

Over recent years, heavily armed herdsmen have been involved in incessant clashes with local farming communities across Nigeria, resulting in heavy casualties. Last week, about 80 people were reported killed after herdsmen went on the rampage in Benue State and President Buhari has been accused to doing nothing about the crisis.

Himself an ethnic Fulani who keeps cattle, President Buhari has come under fierce criticism for not wanting to move against his kinsmen. Yesterday, the Tiv Area Traditional Council (Tact)  told President Buhari that he would not get a single vote in Benue State in 2019, adding that if he loves his political future he would put a lasting solution to the crisis.

Tact, a pan-cultural organisation gave the warning while rejecting the decision by the federal government to designate cattle colonies in different parts of the country. Tact legal adviser Chief Edward Ashiekaa, also disclosed that the organisation has concluded plans to report the recent attacks to the global community and International Criminal Court.

Chief Ashiekaa said: “Of course, Buhari is a Fulani man, he has cattle. But if he loves his political future, he should tackle this matter and bring a solution once and for all because Benue state voted massively for him in 2015 and now, if he contests again in 2019 and the vote is cast, he will get zero votes from Benue State.

“The law has come into being, it has prohibited open-grazing and every citizen must obey this law. The law has also protected cattle owners by prohibiting cattle rustling and providing stiff penalties but the cattle herders are bent on disobeying these laws."

He added that they are going to embassies, the United Nations and even the International Criminal Court to ventilate their grievances. According to Chief Ashiekaa, they are taking bold steps to inform the world that they are law abiding citizens.

"We have no capacity to fight the Fulani herdsmen, knowing the type of sophisticated weapons they have, our rural people cannot fight them. We want to win this war at the battle front but we don’t have the capacity to do that, so we will win it at the international level and at the federal level,” Chief Ashiekaa added.

Chief Ashiekaa noted that the position of Benue State House of Assembly on anti-Open Grazing Bill enacted was very clear. He dared the federal government to explain what it meant by cattle colonies, when, the state government had enacted laws prohibiting open grazing, which was resisted by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association with serious threats.

Tact faulted the declaration by the Inspector General of Police, Idris Ibrahim that the recent killing in the state was a mere communal clash. Chief Ashiekaa added that the perpetuators are Fulani herdsmen, some not even Nigerians but brought in just to create problems and called on Mr Ibrahim top withdraw his statement.