About 10, 000 children in two local government areas of Benue state have been forced out of school following incessant violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers. The Chairman of Benue State Universal Education Board (SUBEB), Rev. Philip Tachin who stated this on Sunday during an interview with journalists in Makurdi lamented that after the New Year's attack in Guma and Logo LGAs of the state, many families fled their homes alongside their children to take refuge in different camps, forcing the children to abandon their education.
He further said the development is a huge setback to the board which had recently embarked on a statewide campaign for massive enrolment of pupils into the various public schools.
According to him;
“The Executive Secretary of State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) gave me a staggering statistic of children numbering 2,050 who are locked up in this camp in Gbajimba. Apart from these children from the rural areas that have been camped here, the primary school in Gbajimba has also been shut down in order to accommodate the refugees since there are no enough IDPs camps.
“This is the multiplier effect of this genocidal operation. There are six IDPs camps in these two affected local governments and if the statistics of these school children are the same across the IDPs camps, over 10,000 children have been forced out of school.
“Many schools have been affected though we are yet to ascertain whether school buildings have been destroyed the same way they do to houses in villages. We met one of the cops that were attacked by the armed herdsmen and he confirmed that they were Fulani herdsmen.
“They were heavily armed and were among their cattle. The federal government should be honest by not playing politics with this serious security problem because it is capable of conflagration. We want one Nigeria and we shouldn’t be pushed to a divided country,” he added.
