Reps Call For Adequate Security Along Makurdi, Naka Interstate Highway

The House of Representatives, on Thursday in Abuja called on security agencies to provide adequate security for travellers and motorists along Makurdi and Naka federal interstate highway in Benue.
The house also urged the Federal Government to compensate farmers who lost their farmlands and crops to the crisis.
It urged security agencies to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the violence.
This resolution followed a motion moved by Rep. Christina Alaaga (PDP-Benue), which was unanimously adopted without debate.
According to Alaaga, the persistent attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen on several communities in the country, had led to the loss of lives and property.
She noted that the North-Central part of the country was the worst hit in recent times.
The legislator said that about 200 nomadic herdsmen had laid siege on Agena and Mbatsada communities of Gwer East Local Government Area, killing women and children.
According to her, the crisis has taken a dangerous dimension with the alleged use of chemical weapons by the attackers.
“If this practice is not stopped, it may spread to other parts of the country.
“The 45-kilometre Makurdi and Naka highways, have been completely taken over for the past two months by the attackers who shot at sight anyone on that road,’’ she said.
Alaaga said that most farmlands and settlements along these roads, had been taken over by the herdsmen, who graze their cattle on farm crops left behind by fleeing framers.
She said that the case of fulani herdsmen attack had been a recurrent issue in the past three years in Gwer-East and West Local Government Council of Benue.
“Furthermore, we are presently faced with a humanitarian crisis of internally displaced persons.’’
She urged members of the house to support the motion to avert crisis.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports on March 13 that the Federal Government had deployed a combined contingent of soldiers and policemen to the state to quell the alleged attacks by Fulani herdsmen. (NAN)