Benue massacre: Wake up and protect citizens, NUJ charges govt
By Jeffrey Agbo
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has charged the Nigerian government and law enforcement to wake up to their responsibilities of protecting lives and property following the killing of about 200 persons in Yeluwata, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State on Saturday, June 14 by alleged armed herders.
A statement on Monday signed by the union’s national secretary, Achike Chude, said the NUJ was saddened by the incident which erodes public confidence in the ability of the Nigerian state to protect her citizens.
“Nigeria needs her citizens to believe in her capacity to keep them safe and secure. This is the most basic of all enshrined responsibilities of the state. Section 14 (2) (b) of the 1999 Federal Constitution as amended makes an uncompromising declaration on the primary duty of the state to keep her citizens safe,” the statement said.
“Sadly, in the past fifteen years, various governments across political lines have struggled ineffectively to fulfill this crucial obligation.
“As we have maintained in previous lamentations on the killings of our peoples from the north, east, south, and west of our geopolitical space, we refuse to believe that the Nigerian State has lost the ability to protect both her territories and her peoples. We refuse to believe that a country that sacrificed the lives of her soldiers to ensure lasting peace abroad in Liberia and Sierra Leone now lacks the will and ability to defend the homestead.
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“The Benue killings is one more killing too many and must provoke sufficient national outrage to galvanize nationwide sentiments of defiance and challenge to galvanize every resource of the state against all killers and harbingers of evil in our country be they terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen, kidnappers or herdsmen.
“The reasons for our constant and consistent security failures can not be in the stars. They are in us. The solutions do not lie in the skies. They are domiciled in us.”
The NUJ said it welcomed the statements of condemnation of the Benue tragedy from prominent Nigerians across all divides, especially from President Bola Tinubu.
The union also welcomed Tinubu’s call to action on his service chiefs to bring the killings to an end and also bring the attackers to justice.
“But we are not unaware that similar calls by the country’s leaders have been made over the years by various heads of government whenever our nation is assaulted in such a rude and unconscionable manner. We need a different outcome this time around,” it added.
“While the Nigeria Union of Journalists grieves with the government and people of Benue State over these heinous killings, the NUJ is ever ready to work with the federal government and security agencies in any meaningful and lawful capacity to bring this madness to a screeching halt. Surely, if it has been determined that the Nigerian State through its security agencies can no longer protect the citizens, then the state must look for a way to involve and incorporate communities into a security network for self defence. To do less is to continue to subject vulnerable communities to mass suicide.”
