Two days after gunmen
attacked a market in Zaki Biam, in Benue State, killing no fewer than 52
people, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has called for the
imposition of a state of emergency on the state.
He also called for a thorough investigation into the death of Plateau
State Commissioner for Housing and Urban Development, Samuel Galadima,
who died at Rwang Pam Stadium, Jos yesterday during a jogging exercise,
which also had Governor Simon Lalong and other members of the state exco
as participated.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Sun yesterday, Wike said
declaration of a state of emergency in Benue had become necessary
because the governor, Samuel Ortom, has shown “ineptitude and lack of
capacity to handle the situation. You can’t have a governor watching
helplessly as his people are being killed. What kind of governor is
that. He has displayed sheer laziness and incapacity in the whole issue,
and this is quite unfortunate.”
While agreeing that governors are not fully in charge of security in
states, despite being called chief security officers (CSOs), Wike,
however, said governors are supposed to have strategies, working with
security agencies, on how to combat crime.
“No excuse is acceptable for the high number of deaths in Benue.”
He said Benue has been in the news over wanton killings, which shows
that the government has not done much in the area of security.
About 52 persons, including women and children, were on Monday shot
dead, with several other people sustaining various degrees of injury,
after gunmen invaded Zaki Biam, in Ukum Local Government Area of Benue.
The attack came 16 years after 2001 Zaki-Biam military invasion.
It was gathered that the attackers, who also set ablaze several houses
and a petrol station in the area, had stormed the Zaki Biam
International Yam Market, after arriving on motorbikes and Toyota
Corolla cars, popularly known as ‘Dog Yash.’
An eywitness said as the guns boomed, “there was stampede and many,
including children and women were killed,” adding: “Also, the invaders
set several houses and a filling station on fire after which they fled
the scene.”
Wike said Rivers State never experienced the kind of insecurity and
killings being seen in Benue, at a time people were plotting imposition
of emergency rule in the state last year.
“We didn’t even have the kind of insecurity and killings that we are
witnessing in Benue today when some of these mischievous opposition in
Abuja were calling for state of emergency in Rivers, but now they have
suddenly lost their voices. You can see their level of hypocrisy and
mischief? I am calling for an urgent imposition of state of emergency in
Benue, because there is a clear incapacity of the governor there to act
decisively to stem the killings and tackle the problem.”
On the death of Plateau State commissioner, the Rivers governor said the
tragedy should be investigated, as the state governor and the
government ought to have ascertained the state of health of the
commissioners before subjecting them to such rigorous exercise.
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