By Winnie Onu, Makurdi
The Tito Group popularly known as producers of Tito Yoghurt has donated food items worth millions of Naira to recently displaced people from Yelwata community in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State.
Chief Executive Officer/President of Tito group, Chief Isaac Akinkunmi, while making the presentation to the IDPs at the temporary shelter in Makurdi International market said, the gesture was intended to ameliorate their sufferings after the June 13 attack by armed herders which led to loss of over 100 lives.
Akinkunmi said, “We have come to identify with the displaced people with these relief materials. It’s not easy for someone to be pushed out of their homes so we brought these items to assist them in one way or the other.
“What we see in this camp is beyond what the government of Benue State alone can handle.”
He lamented the devastation and displacement in rural communities across the state by armed invaders and urged the Federal Government to allow communities own graded weapons in order to match their attackers on the first line of defence before conventional security intervention.
“The kind of Yelwata attack can best be handled by such communities themselves as first line of defence by the establishment of Community Defence Force empowered with like weapons under the control of the Inspector General of Police.
“Custodians of such weapons should be the community leaders who would ensure abuse prevention. State police could help but cannot prevent sudden attacks,” he said.
The business man emphasised that the CDF if established would provide the best approach to deal with current insecurity in the state as in his estimation, state police maybe limited in providing immediate protection during attacks.
He added, “Nigeria security is multi dimensional. What happened in Yelwata is not herders-farmers crisis or skirmishes but an incident requiring immediate response which the state police that people are advocating for may not tackle promptly since they are mostly stationed distance away from vulnerable communities.
The Tito group’s president therefore donated food items including cow, rice, garri, seasonings, sugar, groundnut oil and yoghurts to the IDPs to caution the effect of their hardship.
