Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Tiv Socio-cultural group, Mdzough u Tiv, has said that equating human lives with the lives of cattle was the height of insensitivity, brutality and impunity.
The group was reacting to the alleged killing of 73 cattle in Kadarko, Nasarawa State.
President General of Mdzough u Tiv, Chief Edward Ujege, described the report as a mockery of one of the saddest periods in the lives of the Tiv people, Benue and indeed the entire Nigeria when 73 people, including children, pregnant women and old men murdered by Fulani herdsmen on New Year’s Day 2018 were given mass burial in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
“The attention of the Mdzough u Tiv has been drawn to reports that a purported Tiv militia attacked and killed 73 cows in Kadarko, Nasarawa State while two persons were also alleged to be missing as a result of the attacks.
“It is very unfortunate that the fabricators of the phantom attacks in Nasarawa state have chosen to further ridicule and add insult to the injury and pain of the Tiv people by seeking to equate the same number of cows with those murdered in the New Year Day attacks on communities in Logo and Guma local government areas in Benue State.
Ujege who posited that the alleged attacks and display cattle at the palace of the Emir of Lafia was reprehensible, condemnable and unacceptable to all right thinking members of the human race stated that the comparison of human lives with those of cattle was a poor parody.
“This poor parody, which is part of a larger conspiracy script to downplay the heinous crime committed against Benue state by the Fulani herdsmen and their sponsors must be rejected by all. It is intended to further mock the families of the dead. This cannot be accepted.”