A Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Cyriacus David Kamai on Saturday appealed to the Federal Government to resettle the Internally Displaced People in their ancestral homes to continue with farming in order to avert an impending hunger in the land.
He said the IDPs who are farmers were sacked by herdsmen early June when the herders attacked Jenibanbu, killing several people. The attackers left more than 9,000 farmers from Janibanbu alone in IDP camps across 8 Primary schools in Jalingo, he said.
Fr. Kamai, a native of Kona in Jalingo, who disclosed this in an interview with BusinessDay in Jalingo, wondered why what was meant to be a temporal arrangement has become a permanent one.
The parish priest of St. John the Baptist Pastoral area Jenibanbu said the continued stay by the people in camps without farming indicates that there will be hunger in the land. He further warned that “this will further the already insecurity experience in the land.”
He faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s long silence over the attack, sack, and killings by the herdsmen, and appealed to the president to the people to order.
The Catholic priest, however, appreciated the governor of Taraba state, Darius Ishaku, for his untiring efforts to avert the crisis.
“I suspect that there will be hunger in the land because our people are basically farmers so you can imagine that 17 villages not farming and over 9,000 people in IDP camp from Jenibanbu alone. Where will the food come from?
“I feel that the president has not done enough, in the sense that we want him to speak out to condemn these attacks,”’ the priest said.
“To the best of my knowledge, the governor has tried and is trying so that this thing does not continue. I am aware that he doesn’t sleep, I am also aware that he has put his men on the ground to carry out certain tasks but we wish he does more, particularly that our people should go home and farm; otherwise there will be hunger in the land.
“We elected these people just this year and the same people that elected them are stranded and cannot go back to the comfort of their homes. My parishioners can no longer go to church. As I speak to you am staying in the Catholic pastoral centre because I am also a human being I fled for my life. In fact, the Federal government has a lot to do,” he said.
A report by the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) indicates that more than 23.000 people were sacked in Muribai Yelwa and Jenibanbu following herdsmen attack.
