Benue Massacre: Displaced Survivors Protest Poor Feeding, Living Conditions
- It Was A Sponsored Protest – Benue Govt
Hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Yelewata community in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, on Thursday, held a peaceful protest over their poor feeding and living conditions.
They staged a peaceful protest in Makurdi over alleged food shortages at their temporary shelter.
OSUN DEFENDER reports that gunmen last Friday attacked the community, killing over 200 people.
The displaced persons, who are currently taking refuge at the Makurdi International Ultra Modern Market, marched through the busy Abu King Shuluwa Road, chanting solidarity songs and demanding immediate intervention.
The IDPs, during yesterday’s protest, lamented what they described as government neglect and inadequate relief materials, particularly food.
They appealed to both the state and federal governments to either provide sufficient aid or facilitate their safe return to their ancestral homes.
The protesters who held up traffic on the Abu King Shuluwa Road for several hours also raised concerns over the sharing of money donated for their upkeep by the SGF, Akume and another serving senator from the state, amounting to N12 million.
One of the protesters, who identified himself as Liambe fumed, “They brought us here from our community but left us in hunger. Even the money that was donated to us by Senator Akume nobody has given us anything. So, we want them to either treat us well or return us back to our community. It is better for us that way.”
Reacting, the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, BSEMA, claimed that the protest was sponsored.
The Administrative Officer of BSEMA, Dr. Donald Komgbenda, who spoke on behalf of the agency, debunked claims that the IDPs were denied basic needs and the cash donation by Senator Akume.
His words: “It was a sponsored protest. When we came to this camp, the people that we brought to the camp were about 190, which is about 101 households.
“That night, we were able to give them accommodation. So, Tuesday when the SGF visited the camp, he pledged to give the community N10million and another Senator gave N2million.
“It was Wednesday that a member of the House of Representative came and redeemed his pledge. And at the meeting we had, they directed that the Yelewata community be given N6 million while the balance of N6 million be used by camp management and partners to respond to certain things.
“This morning, there was anxiety by some of the people that came out that they wanted to be part of the sharing. They were the ones that instigated the people to protest.
“They only used and relied on the issue of lack of food as cover to stage the protest because right now, we are distributing food to them. When they came, we wanted to profile them before sharing food. If we do not do that, we might at the end of the day give the food to people who are not supposed to be beneficiaries.
“We were trying to profile them, allocate rooms to them before we know the household number that we have, after which we start sharing the food that would reach everybody. But while we were waiting for the data to be fully collated, we have been distributing food in block on a daily basis.
“The first two days that we came, we cooked for them but because we felt that we could not continue to cook for them everyday, given that the crowd of the first two days was about 190 and suddenly it became about 3,541, so, we decided to give them raw food.
“We are profiling them, and you know that if you have a situation like this, it takes few days before things settle down and get organised.”
Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.
