Internally displaced persons in Benue have taken their protests against the conduct of the scheduled 2023 national population census to the Benue state office of the population commission.
The displaced persons majorly women holding different placards bearing anti census inscriptions said the government is keeping them in IDP camps while their former communities are occupied by invaders. They expressed fear that the invaders may be documented by the national population commission as the owners of the lands.
Speaking to Middle Belt Times reporter in Makurdi the Benue state capital on Thursday, one of the women who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of persecution said they are aware of plots to document terrorists occupying their communities as real owners of the land.
Recall that three weeks ago terrorists suspected to be Fulani militias attacked an IDP camp in Benue state killing no fewer than 50 displaced persons.
Benue state as well as neighboring Nasarawa, Plateau and Southern Kaduna have all had their shares of attacks largely blamed on Fulani terrorists leading to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people.
With the government claiming it has budgeted $1.3b for the 2023 census, Nigerians are questioning the integrity of the exercise with many fearing that the outgoing government may have ulterior motives.
