ICC Note: Leaders are finally describing the killings by Fulani militants in Nigeria’s Benue State as ethnic cleansing and jihad. The Governor of Benue has said that it is both, while Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, believes that it is ethnic cleansing. Both men have called on the Federal Government to protect Nigerians.

05/26/2018 Nigeria (Vangaurd) –

It’s ethnic cleansing; should be treated like cancer. — Soyinka

Balarabe Musa: Soyinka’s wrong; Junaid Mohammed: He’s mischievous.

It’s a jihad, we’ve been disarmed, can’t defend ourselves. —Ortom

Makurdi—Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has charged President Muhammadu Buhari to cry out for help from the international community to stem the killings by herdsmen which he, yesterday, described as ethnic cleansing.

Speaking during a courtesy call on Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Soyinka expressed regret that the administration was treating the malaise as a ringworm itch instead of the deadly cancer it is. Ortom, while welcoming the solidarity of the Nobel laureate, affirmed that the threats against the state were a combination of ethnic cleansing and jihad, even as he lamented the helplessness of the people of the state.

The assertions, however, did not find currency with some leading Northern leaders who decried Soyinka’s categorisation of the troubles in Benue State as ethnic cleansing. Among those who disagreed with him were Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Mohammed; former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa and Second Republic presidential adviser on National Assembly Matters, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai.

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