Benue State Government has appealed to members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) not to visit evil with evil.
The appeal comes amid tension that has gripped people of the state, particularly the people of Idoma land, where the state chairman of MACBAN, Ardo Risku Muhammad, was killed last Friday.
The MACBAN chairman had attended a peace meeting allegedly convened by the Divisional Police Officer of Ohinmini LGA. Unfortunately, after the peace meeting, gunmen ambushed and killed him alongside his friend, Yakubu Isah, at Okuku village within Otukpo LGA.
The Special Adviser to Governor Hyacinth Alia on Internal Security, Joseph Har, who alongside the nine chairmen from the Benue South senatorial district of the state, known as Zone C, addressed newsmen in Makurdi on Sunday, condemned the killing and appealed to MACBAN to exercise restraint from embarking on reprisal attacks.
Har, who spoke after a security meeting with the nine local government chairmen from Zone C, described the deceased as an advocate of peace and stated that the incident was not a Benue or Idoma agenda.
He called on security agents to promptly arrest the perpetrators of the killing of the MACBAN chairman and those responsible for previous attacks on the people of the state.
Har said: “Just like any other killings that have been condemned, this one is condemned too. It is not acceptable, especially as it is coming at a time when we are witnessing relative calm in the state. We can all attest to the fact that for the past six months we have not experienced this bloodbath in the state.
“So, coming to kill Ardo Risku, who was an advocate of peace, as witnessed last week where he had gone for a peace meeting with another person — this is not a good thing at all. We want to dissociate ourselves from the killing; it is not an Idoma agenda, it is not a Benue agenda, but a criminal agenda.”
He, on behalf of the state government, consoled the family and members of MACBAN in the state and across the country.
According to Har: “We want to ask that, as painful as this may be, just the same way as the previous ones, we want to ask that we do not pay back evil for evil. We appeal to the family and followers of Ardo Risku not to take the law into their hands.”
Also speaking, the state deputy chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, who also doubles as Chairman of Agatu LGA, Melvin Ejeh, described the killing as “a sad one.”
He said: “For us in the state, it is a very sad day for criminals to kill an advocate of peace. We condemn it in strong terms and we condole with the family.
“Let me say this emphatically that the ugly incident was not a calculated action carried out by Idoma but by criminals.” He called on security agents to fish out the perpetrators of last Friday’s incident as well as the killers of Benue indigenes who had been killed in the past.
He appealed against any reprisal, saying: “Any reprisal will be on innocent people and we are deeply pained by the death of the MACBAN state chairman. No sensible person will kill such a figure in the state. Idoma land stands against the killing.”
Also, Adole Gabriel and Maxwell Ogiri, Chairmen of Ohinmini and Otukpo LGAs respectively, described the killing of the MACBAN chairman as painful, especially as it happened when he was returning from a peace meeting.
They both appealed to members of MACBAN not to allow any reprisal attack on the innocent people of the area, and called on security agents to ensure the arrest of those who carried out the act on Muhammad, as well as those responsible for the killing of Benue people in the past.
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