Counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has advised rural communities to mobilize and defend their ancestral lands from herdsmen.
Naijaonpoint reports that Ejiofor said the attacks and killings of residents of different communities in Benue and Plateau State required that indigenous communities provide their own security.
In a statement on Tuesday, the IPOB lawyer faulted the government’s response to the rising killings of citizens by herdsmen.
Ejiofor regretted that the government has failed to go beyond condemning the attacks to finding permanent solutions to the killings.
The statement read: “In the days preceding Easter, and with chilling audacity on its eve, the nation witnessed a harrowing wave of coordinated attacks across Benue and Plateau States. Dozens of innocent lives were brutally extinguished by terror herdsmen, in what has sadly become a recurrent national tragedy.
“In an all-too-familiar pattern, the Governor of Benue State, a member of the ruling APC, addressed the press, lauding the Federal Government for its support in the fight against these marauders.
“Paradoxically, he followed this with an appeal for further federal intervention – a contradiction that underscores both the gravity of the crisis and the impotence of official responses.
“Simultaneously, the Honourable Minister of Defence conveyed a presidential directive mandating security forces to track down and prosecute those responsible. Yet, even as these official pronouncements echoed through the media, the bloodletting continued unabated, with no decisive action on the ground.
“In light of this grim reality, it has become glaringly evident that Indigenous communities can no longer afford to entrust their safety to a system that has persistently failed them.
“I, therefore, call on our people to urgently and lawfully organize in defence of their ancestral lands and heritage, within the legal parameters sanctioned by laws. The sustained annihilation agenda of these terror groups demands an unwavering, communal resolve for survival.”