By Sunday Ogli, Makurdi
PEOPLE’S Democratic Party, PDP, Benue State chapter, has debunked insinuations by the All Progressives Congress, APC chapter in the state that the Benue Community Volunteer Guards, BCVGs, would be used to rig elections in the state.
Recall that the BCVGs had the passing out parade of 500 volunteers in Makurdi last Thursday.
The APC through its State Publicity Secretary condemned the commissioning of BCVGs by Governor Samuel Ortom, arguing that such previous outfits in the state as the Vigilante Group and the Livestock Guards were not successful.
APC also insinuated the birthing of the new outfit in the build up to the 2023 elections and in the twilight of Governor Ortom in power may be used to rig the coming polls, even as they questioned how it will be funded and logisticated now and post the Ortom era.
However, PDP, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Bemgba Iortyom on Sunday, said that BCVGs is a purely community security focused outfit which has neither orientation nor inclination towards political interference.
Iortyom further stated that with the enhanced electoral reforms and voter awareness, it is myopic, cowardly and prematurely defeatist for the APC to insinuate such an outfit could have a role in the electoral process come 2023.
“For the records, Benue PDP authoritatively avers that the commissioning of the BCVGs by Governor Samuel Ortom now represents the triumph of the will of the people of Benue State over their oppressors, being it the result of a painstaking process of recruitment of volunteers, their training, the sourcing of their primarily essential weapons, as well as navigating statutory recognition of the outfit through the bottlenecks imposed by the APC regime at the federal level.
“Benue PDP understands the apprehensions of its counterpart, APC, towards the BCVGs considering what the outfit represents to the opposition party and their sponsors within and outside of Benue.
“The BCVGs firstly represents the unified resolve of Benue people against killer Fulani herdsmen, in words and deed, that ‘we have had enough of you killing and maiming us, raping our women, destroying our farms, occupying our lands, pushing us deeper into poverty and economic slavery, in execution of your deliberately hatched genocidal and land grab agenda, while the security architecture of Nigeria appears hamstrung from defending us.’
“Out great party understands that such a resolve should naturally stir angst, anxiety and panic in the Benue chapter of APC which has over the years been what may be rightly termed as ” the political wing of killer Fulani herdsmen” in the state.
“Benue APC has been in the lead of absolving Fulani herdsmen of guilt for killings and sundry crimes in Benue, propagating the false narrative that it is Benue people who are killing one another, even after the herdsmen, through groups such as Myetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, have accepted even at international press conferences responsibility for killings in Benue, including those of women and children.
For the records, Benue PDP authoritatively avers that the commissioning of the BCVGs by Governor Samuel Ortom now represents the triumph of the will of the people of Benue State over their oppressors, being it the result of a painstaking process of recruitment of volunteers, their training, the sourcing of their primarily essential weapons, as well as navigating statutory recognition of the outfit through the bottlenecks imposed by the APC regime at the federal level,” Iortyom further stated.
