The Association of Idoma Lawyers, yesterday condemned the senseless killings of the people of Benue State by the Fulani herdsmen.
The group said the killings were nothing else but genocide.
It also blamed President Muhammadu Buhari, accusing him of indifference.
The group expressed its concern in a statement issued in Abuja and jointly signed by its patron, Chief Godwin Obla (SAN) and President, Dr. J. Y Musa (SAN), respectively.
It added that the killings commenced on an extermination scale on February, 2013, first, against the sedentary and predominantly agrarian Agatus (of Idoma extraction), and spreading, thereafter, like a wildfire to Mbasenger community in Guma Local Government Area in April, 2013, with the killing of 10 defenceless farmers in one day, at the first instance, on that scale.
The statement reads in part: “The year 2013 was like a set time for the Fulani militias to unleash their murderous mayhem of expansionist agenda on the people of Benue. Thus, like a spread of diffusive substance, subsequently, it has been from one event of gory spree of rampaging killings to another across the length and breadth of Benue State, on a scale hardly obtainable in modern warring situation between two countries.
“A Timeline of the series of massacre by the Fulani militias masquerading as herdsmen in Benue State would help to bring this narrative in a proper perspective.
“January 24, 2017 – 15 persons were killed by rampaging Fulani herdsmen, who attacked farmers in Ipiga village in Ohimini LGA of Benue State.
“March 2, 2017 – No fewer than 10 persons were killed in a renewed hostility between herdsmen and farmers in Mbahimin community, Gwer East LGA of Benue State.”