A socio-political umbrella of all youth groups in southeastern Nigeria, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), has expressed concern on the deteriorating plights of Internal displaced persons (IDPs) in various camps in Nigeria, particularly Benue state.
In a release by its President General, Goodluck Egwu Ebem, and made available to Vanguard on Monday, the group also regretted the inhuman condition Nigerian youths suffered in Benue, because of the insistence by armed fulani herders that certain Nigerians would never enjoy their rights or live out their purpose.
The southeast group called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led Presidency to jettison politics and find better alternative towards ameliorating challenges facing Internally displaced persons in Benue especially her thinning farming population, victims of herders killing.
The Coation further called on all Nigerians to show support, regardless of their political and ethnic backgrounds, to the cause Governor Samuel Ortom is pursuing with whatever they can part with, such as funding, idea and understanding.
The COSEYL recalled in the statement which partly said, “rcently, Governor Samuel Ortom, in a release to celebrate two iconic sons of Benue in a Mass urged Nigerians of other ethnic and political groups to remember the displaced. For this do our hearts bleed. Our hearts bleed because we know that in those camps are youths who hitherto, had been charting their course through farming, contributing a bulk to our feeding and survival as a nation, who today can no longer go back to their farms due to Fulani herders! This fleeing population, who now desires a home outside their base is part of the reasons food crisis and price is heightening and availability of same dwindling.
“Governor Ortom used the birthday celebrations of two illustrious sons (Speaker Titus Uba and Statesman Paul Unongo) to reach out to Nigerians of all shades over the plight of the displaced Benue population. Apart from raising the infrastructure bar of the state, Ortom had shown his human side by calling evil by its name wherever such exists. He was vocal in a matter affecting the North, the Southwest and Southeast recently in a way people outside the region could hardly be concerned. It is for this reason that our hearts go out to him in a moment like this.
“Managing humans is tasking, managing displaced humans is more tasking. Nigerians, in the spirit of the celebration of independence, should be asking: are our brothers and sisters in Benue free and independent of alien forces in their businesses and farming?. We need to understand, study and come to the help of Governor Ortom and his displaced people of Benue whose lands and farms have been taken over by land-hungry and expansionist fulani herdsmen.
“We wish Ortom, the displaced people of Benue and even those in the Northeast a just as we wish ourselves in the Southeast; this is a task before us all, if this nation we must build collectively as youths. Benue and her displaced persons should be our food for thought”.
Vanguard