Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has suspended five traditional rulers in the state over alleged complicity in land disputes in their domains.
Those suspended were two district heads and three kindred heads.
The District Head of Uvir Council Ward of Guma local government area of the state, James Abu, who was among those suspended, was immediately handed over to the police for further investigation on the matter.
Also suspended were the District Head of Ikov, Samuel Iorhule, Kindred head of Shilagh, Joseph Yar, Kindred head of Uninge, Aanger Ortese and Samuel Ayayo who is the Kindred head of Unyande.
The decision to suspend the monarchs was taken at the end of the first Tiv tribe Security and Stakeholders meeting held on Monday in Makurdi, the state capital.
Ortom, who read the resolution of the meeting, said: “All the stakeholders were deeply concerned about the rising state of insecurity especially in Tiv land including herdsmen attacks, communal clashes, fetish activities that have been going on and land disputes.
“We took time to assess the situation and we came to the conclusion that all these crises are needless and they must cease. There must be peace for our people because there can be no meaningful development without peace.
“We have decided that henceforth no one will be spared if he is culpable of causing any form of crisis in Benue State.
“We have so far identified the youths in Tiv land for being culpable of creating most of the crises that are going on but most times they are shielded by their elders and their communities.
“But we will not surrender our leadership to the youths because it is an abomination. We as elders and stakeholders must take up the responsibility to provide leadership to the youths in our various communities.
“We have also agreed to expand our security network from the state to the kindred level to help us nip some of the crisis in the bud and also be proactive to ensure that criminals did not take over our communities.
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“We have also said that we are not going to surrender our lands to criminals to take over and give us leadership. This government, traditional rulers, stakeholders and security agencies will work closely together to ensure that we eliminate criminality in our society so that we can join forces to fight the pandemic we have today.”
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