(Benue needs urgent urban renewal to attract private sector, says APC chieftain)

A coalition of Tiv community leaders in Nasarawa State has raised the alarm over what they described as a calculated plan by the state government under Governor Abdullahi Sule, to depopulate and displace Tivs from their ancestral lands in the guise of agricultural development.

This was as a former Benue State governorship aspirant under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Godwin Ityoachimin, canvassed urgent urban renewal of major cities in the state.

At a briefing yesterday in Abuja, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Jerry Aondo accused the governor of weaponising state machinery, including the military, Civil Defence corps and key ministries, to systematically demolish Tiv villages and suppress their traditional institutions in Awe, Obi, Keana and Doma local councils.

Aondo claimed that Governor Sule was orchestrating an ?ethnic cleansing agenda? masked as an agricultural expansion initiative, alleging that the entire Tiv communities of Udugh, Utsuwa, Usula, China, Chabo, Wachi, Tyungu, Uvirkaa, Ugba, Ayarkeke and over a dozen others have either been demolished, marked for destruction, or faced forced displacement.

?In Udugh village, bulldozers arrived with armed soldiers and civil defence operatives to destroy homes, schools, churches and even graveyards, following a visit by the governor on May 4. The people were given no option but to abandon their ancestral homes,? Aondo said.

He further alleged that women in Osula village were driven from their farmlands by government agents, leaving families vulnerable and without their only means of livelihood.

?What is happening is not development; it is ethnic persecution carried out in the name of agriculture,? he added.

The Guardian gathered that the Secretary to the State Government, the Commissioner of Police, the House of Assembly speaker, among others, had yet to respond to petitions bordering on the cleansing of TIV people of Nasarawa.

ITYOACHIMIN, a retired director from the Federal Ministry of Works, who is preparing to contest the 2027 governorship election in the state, said the total lack of action of the state government to engage in sustainable development made the state ?embarrassingly? unattractive to the Organised Private Sector (OPS).

The APC chieftain made the remarks during an interactive session with members of the Conference of Benue Journalists (CBJ) at the weekend in Abuja.

The estate surveyor and valuer also decried the state?s lack of clear-cut strategic plans to address most of the challenges confronting the people.

He specifically said that it was disheartening to see how the state government had glided over the genuine priority of upgrading the infrastructure of Makurdi, Gboko and Otukpo, among others.

?The direct interpretation of these cities? imagery conveys squalor, filthiness, poverty and decay. By February 2026, the state will be marking its Golden Jubilee and what you see does not reflect what should be. Should the people wait for eternity to test a good life? The answer is no.?

The Vandeikya-born politician also emphasised the need for inclusive governance to accommodate the diverse ethnic groups in the state, adding that all people of the state had an equal stake in the Benue landscape. (The Guardian)

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