The Federal Government has been urged to declare a state of emergency in the Middle Belt owing to the surge of insecurity.
Some concerned leaders of the Middle Belt stated this, raising concerns over the spate of killings and displacement of citizens in the region, saying the surge could lead to a state of anarchy.
Speaking under the auspices of Middle Belt Concern during a media roundtable held in Lagos, the Convener, Ier Jonathan-Ichaver, said the states in the Middle Belt have suffered untold hardship worsened by insecurity.
‘For over a decade, our people in Benue, Southern Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Plateau, and across the Middle Belt have buried their dead, fled their farms, and watched a government treat mass atrocity as a footnote,’ she said.
She added that insecurity has reduced life expectancy, plunged many into displacement and poverty.
‘Nigeria stands at the edge of collapse – collapsing life expectancy, a security apparatus that has surrendered the countryside to killers, and poverty deepening by the day.
‘Independent research puts the human cost of this conflict in the tens of thousands of lives lost since the early 2000s, with millions displaced nationwide and hundreds of thousands crowded into makeshift camps in Benue State alone.
‘These are not abstractions. They are our mothers, our farmers, our children – erased, and then forgotten by a state that owes them protection,’ she said.
Steven Kefas, Founder of Community Development and Right Advocacy Foundation, raised an alarm that the incessant killings could throw the country into anarchy, saying the states in the Middle Belt region are facing horrendous attacks by terrorists.
‘We are burying thousands of people every day in the Middle Belt,’ he said.
He quoted a survey that states over three million people have been displaced, saying they may never be able to return to their ancestral communities.