Benue Killings: IGP Idris apologises to Benue over "communal clash" comment

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, has apologised to the citizens of Benue State for referring to the current crisis in parts of the state as "communal clash" when he spoke to newsmen in Abuja last week. 

 Idris who arrived Makurdi on Wednesday on the directives of President Muhammadu Buhari that he should immediately relocate to Benue state against the background of recent killings by alleged armed herders said his statement was misinterpreted. "I want to apologise as a person for the misconception of the statement I made at a media briefing in Abuja. I was trying to say that Nigerians should live together and stay together as one family. But I was misinterpreted," he said. The police chief maintained that Nigeria will remain united and wax stronger as effort would be made to nib in the bud those challenges threatening the country's unity, stressing the need for peace to prevail. He said that already 10 units of mobile police detachment comprising of 663 operatives, one unit of police special force as well as intelligence and a crack team of investigators have been deployed to the state. Earlier,  a cross-section of people who expressed their minds to the IGP over the killings in the state since new year said they were shock over the police boss comment as they demanded apology and wanted the federal government to do more in terms of stopping further violence against the rural dwellers. All the speakers insisted that they would stand by the anti-open grazing law of the state for which a section of the herders group are now demanding its withdrawal at their separate media outings just as they variously demanded a special military operation to be stationed in the state. The various speakers also accused Buhari of treating the herdsmen/farmers issue with kid gloves because they were his kinsmen, urging him to live up to Nigerians expectation following the high confidence reposed in his leadership. Governor Ortom on his part informed that 73 corpses were awaiting mass burial today as he stood on his ground that the attackers are camped in neighbouring Nasarawa state.