From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
About 20 staff of the Rantito Group of Companies have besieged the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) to donate blood for victims of the recent herdsmen attacks in the state.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Chief Isaac Akinkunmi, who led the staff to the blood bank unit of the hospital, said the gesture was in response to the call by the hospital for people to come and donate blood for victims of the recent herdsmen attack in the state who are lying critically ill at the hospital.
“We appealed to our workers to come and donate blood freely and some of them heeded the call to freely donate to save lives. We both enlightened and convinced them that donating blood is not harmful to their health and they honored our call.”
Akinkunmi, who is also the President, Yoruba Community in Benue State, lamented that the issue of herdsmen attack is very disturbing because it is becoming a recurring decimal in the state.
“We are not in doubt of the fact that this recent attack is as a result of the law against open grazing in the state which the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore (MAKH) is strongly opposed to. They have been issuing threats and have carried out their threats.”
He commended the Governor Samuel Ortom-led government for promulgating the anti-open grazing law as it remains the only solution to the incessant crises in the state.
He also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to look at the matter with a view to solving it holistically because it’s not just a Benue problem but a Nigerian problem.
He continued, “President Buhari has to do something about this fast because this is no just a Benue problem but a Nigerian problem as farmers are killed in Ondo, Enugu, Plateau, Oyo, Ekiti and so on. It’s overwhelming that we are inundated by these attacks everyday.
“Is there no solution to this problem? Is this how we are going to continue and hand over to our generation yet unborn? I appeal to President Buhari to call MAKH to order and the faceless attackers,” Akinkunmi said.