Benue IDPs hits 1.6million – Group tells Nigerians in Diaspora

By Kingsley Chukwuka

A Middle-Belt Group has informed Nigerians in the Diaspora that the numbers of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in Benue State has continued to soar, a frightening figure that has hit 1.6 million.

The Group said women and children are the worst hit in the rising figure, noting that the worrisome figure has not even attracted the attention of the Nigerian Government.

Leader of the Group, Mr. Godwin Gang was reacting to the appeal made by the Nigerians in Diaspora to the President of the United States, Joe Biden where they called on him to intervene in the present security challenges bedeviling Nigeria.

The Diaspora had met with Congressman Thomas Earl Emmer Jnr, US representative for Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District and extensively discussed issues relating to “Security problems in Nigeria, why the US should care and help.”

However the Middle-belt group on Friday told our correspondent that Joe Biden should further narrow his search light to the Benue IDPs since the Nigerian Government has abandoned their plight just because Governor Samuel Ortom is speaking truth to power.

Narrating the situation of the IDPs Gang said with the updated figure of over  1.6million IDPs in the State, Ortom’s administration is facing a huge task providing for their needs.

“The IDPs are being accommodated in primary schools in most of the communities and those in camps are mostly people who have not been able to find their relatives or friends to take them in.

“The accommodation in the camps are certainly inadequate and we are worried at the difficult conditions the people, particularly women and children, are having to endure”, Gang said.

Our correspondent reports that the Benue IDPs was as a result Fulani herdsmen attacks who wants to forcefully grab the lands of the people for grazing.