Benue drags Miyetti Allah group to court over killings in 14 LGAs

The Benue state government has filed a lawsuit against the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore for complicity in the several attacks launched by suspected cattle herders that have resulted in the death of hundreds in the state.

This was disclosed by the the state's governor, Samuel Ortom, while he was speaking at the Government House in Makurdi over the state's new security approach to curb the repeated killings on Monday April 30, 2018.

According to Ortom, the lawsuit before the State High Court, Markurdi, indicts the group on allegations of murder and widespread violence across 14 out of the 23 local government areas of the state.

The state government has always pointed the accusing finger at the group ever since a rise in the spate of killings allegedly carried out by herdsmen escalated in January 2018.

Nomadic herdsmen have long been in conflict with local farmers, especially in the Middle Belt, over the access and control of lands on which their cattle graze.

Governor Ortom said Kautal Hore has carried out several public threats against the implementation of the state's Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law that outlawed open grazing in the state in November 2017.

Just a day after the implementation of the law in 2017, Kautal Horezonal leader in charge of northcentral states, Gidado Bebeji, had criticised the method of implementation.

He expressed concern that the herdsmen's human rights to free movement was being violated as a result of the restriction placed on the conduct of their business.