The Executive Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has called for the suspension of the 2023 National Population and Housing Census scheduled to take place in May over security concerns and to pave way for the return of Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) in the North Central geopolitical zone.
Ortom made the call recently in Makurdi while receiving leaders of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) who visited to commiserate with him over the killing of over 134 persons by suspected herdsmen.
While addressing the MBF, Ortom said it had become important for the Federal Government to postpone the census as more than two million indigenes of the state who were still living in IDP camps would not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the census.
In a statement made available to newsmen, he said: “I want to say that the Federal Government should suspend the issue of the census because it looks like the proposed census is coming with an agenda.
“It should be on hold until they are able to restore security and all our IDPs go back to their ancestral lands to give all of them opportunities to be counted in their homes of birth because I understand from the National Population Commission that those to be counted must be counted in their localities.”
Also, the governor condemned the spate of persistent attacks on Benue communities by armed herdsmen over the years in which over 6,000 people have died and property worth billions of Naira destroyed while the Federal Government does little to help.
He said: “In Benue State alone, we have lost over 6,000 people. In the last few days alone, over 131 persons were killed and we are still counting because others are in the hospital.”
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