WREP visit to Mbalom Council Ward Benue

Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP) visit to Mbalom Council Ward, Benue
The Ukpor, Ayar-Mbalom Community, Gwer East Local Government Area of Benue State (about 280km round trip from Makurdi) with a population of 16,770 as at 2017 is situated about 90kms away from the Igbor Junction along, the Makurdi– Aliade Road. The community has a functional Primary Health Care center, 2 schools comprising of Bishop Anagbe Nursery and Primary School at St. Ignitius Catholic Mission Ayar and UBE Junior Secondary School, Mbalom) and a Market. However, the generality of the community members depend on the Ankyo and Uhila Streams for all their water needs (Drinking, cooking, bathing and washing). Though, the local government area is implementing the Rural Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion in Nigeria (RUSHPIN) Project, most of the communities have not been triggered hence open defecation is still the order of the day.

The relatively unknown community came into limelight on a rather sad note on the 24th of April 2018 when heavily armed herdsmen stormed a worship center (St Ignitius Catholic Mission), in the early hours of the morning, killing 2 Priests and 17 worshippers in cold blood, while others where left critically injured. The attackers went round burning houses and other valuables before departing silently as they had come, leaving in their wake, dead bodies, the injured, and creating a social problem for the families and community generally. This action attracted condemnation across the globe from different individuals, organizations and stakeholders especially Women’s Right to Education Programme (WREP).

Immediately after the attack, WREP team comprising Prof Vickie Sylvester-WREP Chair, Dorcas Iorkusah, Astira Choji, and lead by Ms Mimidoo Achakpa, (through Rev Fr James Akpaegher) engaged stakeholders within and outside the country with the aim to draw attention of the world to the plight of the community and the state with a visit to the affected community to have a firsthand view of the situation.

The team informed the community that the objectives of the visit was to meet and condole with members of the affected community; symbolically support severely affected households in the community with Food and Non-Food Items as well as identify possible areas of support needs of the community.The expected outcomes of the visit is that community members will recover quickly from the trauma of loss of loved ones knowing they are not alone; households whose breadwinners were killed on the fateful day will feed with less difficulty while buying time for more interventions to take place; and to have interventions that are guided by needs of the affected community which leave a positive impact on the people.

The community members who came out en-mass (400 community members constituting 67HouseHolds) welcomed the team, while narrating their ordeal. A young man said the population of the community was far higher but due to the attack, most of them moved out as they were not sure of the security of their lives; those still in the community are afraid to visit their farms because the Fulani’s are still in the vicinity. An elderly widow who had lost all including her 3 sons in a previous attacksaid most of them saw the herdsmen coming towards the church but couldn’t run, but after the death of Fr Gor by gun shots from the herdsmen, the worshipers scattered everywhere; stating that the gunmen called her a poor woman after shoving their guns in her face but didn’t shoot her. Mrs. Grace Dick, wife of the late Principal of Bishop Anagbe Nursery and Primary School, St. Ignitius Catholic Mission, Ukpor Ayar-Mbalom who was killed by the attack alongside the 2 Priests; said her husband’s life was cut short leaving her with 6 children. Godwin Gbinde Godwin lamented that it is difficult to continue farming when the herdsmen are still lurking in the bushes waiting to pounce on innocent community members and the Police unit deployed to forestall any other attack in the community is always sleeping in the camp set up for them, hardly stepping out a foot for patrols.

Some of the findings and observations of the visit include
Findings/Observations.

• The team on the visit to Ukpor Ayar-Mbalom Community, Gwer East Local Government Area observed that, the Catholic Mission in the community was the hub of development since the only functional borehole is located within the mission premises and serves the Priests’ house, the church and the school. It is clear that the water need of the population of the community is far higher than can be supported by the borehole thus, the dependence on the unprotected and unhygienic streams which are within the cycle of the resource conflict between farmers and herdsmen.
• Bishop Anagbe Nursery, Primary and Secondary School is a work in progress, each graduating class creates a need thereby giving rise to new classes and expansions.
• The attack revealed that, only the able-bodied and children were targeted for elimination by the armed herdsmen. Most of the aged caught within the vicinity of the church, where the attack began were spared, a development which reinforces earlier held perceptions about the agenda of the perpetrators.
• Most of those killed were male of productive age (Bread Winners), full of potentials but whose death has created a vacuum and economic problem for the families left behind.
• The inability of the community members to go to their farms and cultivate their farms this season portends serious food security concerns that need urgent measures to address.
• The 24th April 2018 attack could have been avoided if only the government was proactive about the concerns raised by the people regarding the presence of the herdsmen in the community.

Recommendations:
Some of the recommendations by the community include:

1. Interventions targeting the community should have water and other WASH facilities at the center to forestall other issues from emerging to compound the challenges already faced by the community.
2. Educational support targeted at the pupils and the schools should be considered. This will go a long way in reducing the burden of widows left with high number of children to fend for.
3. More advocacy efforts should be made, highlighting the atrocities been perpetrated by the heavily armed men killing and maiming with impunity in the Benue valley.
4. There is need to include food and nonfood items such as the prostate in whatever intervention package that is been planned for any such community.
5. Government should be more proactive with the early warning signs and concerns raised by members of the community.
6. Government should set up a mobile police unit with active members to be permanently stationed in the community.