By Henry Ibya, Makurdi
Chairman, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Benue State chapter, Maurice Orwough, has called on Benue people to sustain support to Governor Hyacinth Alia administration to enable the governor maintain the tempo of development as well as payment of salaries, pensions and arrears, provision of other critical infrastructure like electricity, healthcare, construction of roads and other welfare packages meant to improve living standard of the people.
Orwough, also Chairman of Guma Local Government Area who made the call in an interview with our correspondent on Thursday in Makurdi, lauded efforts of the present administration particularly in the area of security, scoring Governor Alia 100 percent.
He noted that in less than one and half years, Governor Alia has done more than what the immediate past administration did in eight years, stressing that the governor deserves to be given another four years to continue the good works.
The Guma council boss who expressed satisfaction with the level security issues are being handled by the present administration, recalled that in the past, there were security breaches here and there, with pockets of attacks and killing of innocent citizens on daily basis, stressing that under the Alia administration such attacks and killings have become minimal due to the new approach introduced by the present administration.
He recalled that in the past Guma and Makurdi Local Government Areas particularly used to be in the news over attacks and killings of innocent farmers by herdsmen, explaining that under the present administration, the case is different as there are few of such cases especially in the hinterlands.
The Benue ALGON boss also disclosed that most of the farmers who had flee their ancestral homes in Guma and Makurdi Local Government Areas for fear of attacks and killings have returned and already resumed farming activities as well as other businesses without further attacks, revealing that even some people still living in IDPs camp due to destruction of their homes during the invasion now go to their farms only to return to the camps for lack of accommodation at their places and appealed to the Federal Government, International Community and Non Governmental Organizations both local and international to assist the state government reconstruct those houses for victims to return to their ancestral homes to begin a living as proud citizens of Nigeria.