Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

A governorship aspirant in Benue State, Dr. Paul Angya, has lamented that the state had lost over 40 percent of its territorial land mass to Fulani incursions into the state.

Angya, who is contesting for the 2019 governorship seat on the platform of the Labour Party (LP), regretted what he described as a ‘total siege’ laid on Benue State, stressing that more than 40 percent of Benue’s ancestral homes are now under occupation by Fulani herdsmen.

His words, “More than 40 percent of our ancestral homes are right now under occupation and there is nobody saying anything. We know that the state government has its limitations in terms of protecting people, in terms of cohesive power, in terms of control of the military and the police.

“But they are compounding the issues by apologizing for the people whose responsibility it is to protect us. And that is enough reason for any full-blooded Benue man to want to stand up to challenge this existing system.

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Aside tackling the Fulani invasion, Angya, a former acting Director General of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), promised that if elected, he would look into the issue of prompt payment of salary, unemployment, infrastructural development, educational development among others.

On his choice to contest on the platform of the Labour Party, Angya opined that he took the decision because the people of the state were already fed up with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“I’m contesting on the platform of the Labour Party because the people of Benue are completely fed up with the PDP and the APC. If anyone tells you that APC will win an election in Benue, then the person needs to be checked going by the massive killings in the state.”