Idoma lawyers canvass state police, restructuring

The Association of Idoma Lawyers has called for the creation of state police and restructuring of the federation.

The body was reacting to the recent attacks by herdsmen in Guma and Logo council areas of Benue State where over 60 persons were allegedly killed.

In a statement by the patron and president, Chief Godwin Obla (SAN) and Dr. J.Y. Musa (SAN) and titled The ongoing genocide against humanity in Benue State and the conspiratorial indifference of the Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria: The stance of the Association of Idoma Lawyers, the organisation called for the total overhaul of Nigeria’s nationhood.

Recalling the numerous herdsmen’s killings in the Benue valley, the association noted: “The heart-wrenching massacre of December 31, 2017 against the defenceless people of Benue State appeared to be the attainment of a crescendo in the killing spree of Fulani militias masquerading as herdsmen.”

The statement stressed that the prevailing circumstance constrained the lawyers to see the restructuring of the federation as a lasting solution.

The association observed that given the dominance of certain groups in the country’s security architecture, particularly the internal organisations, there was need to take immediate steps at decentralising the policing system in order to allow for state police in the federating units.

According to the statement, it would have been practically impossible for the herdsmen to run down Benue communities with such ease if there were a police system in the state with the governor as the ‘true’ chief security officer.

The lawyers maintained that ongoing calls by the various ethnic nationalities for the restructuring of the country could no longer be subjugated.

They said: “Given the all-round quagmire the country has found itself, it is getting clearer by the day that restructuring appears the choice for the government of the day.

“The current political structure has become increasingly unsustainable. In all of these, there is a need to develop a platform to articulate their collective aspirations in the emerging inevitable new federalism that the agitations for restructuring portend.”