The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has joined the government and people of Benue State to mourn the victims of the recent suspected herdsmen attacks as they were given a mass burial earlier on Thursday in Makurdi, the state capital.
Residents of Makurdi came out in hundreds to mourn as bodies of the victims of the attacks of January 1 and 2 in parts of the state were buried.
Government offices, commercial banks, markets and schools were closed in the state capital in observance of the work-free day earlier declared by the state government in honour of the victims.
Mr. Ekweremadu who expressed sadness over the preventable loss of lives in Nigeria, reiterated his call for decentralised policing in the country.
In a statement signed by his special adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, he said: “This is a black Thursday, not only for the people of Benue State, but also for the entire nation. My heartfelt condolences go to the government and people of Benue State as the victims of the suspected herdsmen attacks are committed to mother earth.
“While I join fellow Nigerians to pray for the peaceful repose of the souls of the victims and fortitude to those who lost their loved ones, let me reiterate that we must avert such future occurrences by urgently rethinking our security system.”
The deputy Senate president called for a decentralisation of the country’s police system in order to enable every federating unit to take its fate in its own hand in effectively protecting the lives and property of Nigerians.
“This is the primary object of government”, he said.
