Nollywood actress, Meg Otanwa who dumped banking for acting, has questioned President Muhammadu Buhari over the recent herdsmen invasion in Benue State. The multi-lingual actress
famous for her role as Aisha in the ground breaking TV series BEFORE 30, revealed that she lost her cousin, in the hands of the same herdsmen.
Meg revealed her travails in her Bella Naija article saying:” In June of 2017, I lost my cousin, Sunday Fabian Otanwa, in the hands of these same herdsmen in Makurdi. Sunday was in the police force, he was deployed to a village to protect the people. He and his colleagues became a target for the herdsmen, they launched another attack just to kill the security personnel in the villages. Sunday was killed.Please tell me Mr President, are we second class Nigerians? Why must we continue to suffer in the hands of these faceless barbaric criminals? They come to kill and claim our ancestral land.
“The people of Benue State are predominantly farmers. That is what they know. Benue State did not become “the Food Basket of the nation” for nothing. Farming is the means of livelihood for most people in Benue State. So when they attack our crops, they attack our very existence.The Open Grazing Prohibition and Establishment of Ranches law has been signed since May 2017. So why are we still left to fight these criminals off our lands? These attacks and killings have persisted and worsened over the years in places as disparate as Plateau, Kaduna, Enugu among other parts of the country.
She urged the President to take prompt action by deploying the army to protect and secure Benue , Kaduna, Plateau and Enugu.
“Mr President Sir, with all due respect, we do not need your condolences anymore. We’ve received enough of that for over 20 plus years. Open grazing is now against the law. The governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has cried out to the federal government for help. He is not the Commander In Chief; you are, sir. So please deploy the army to protect and secure Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Enugu and every other part of Nigeria that has experienced these vicious attacks and yet still remains under threat”.