Ogiri John Ogiri

We Are Not Cowards in Benue State We are not cowards in Benue state, we are brave men and women. Our fore-bears were parts of those that gave up their lives in defence of the sovereignty of our dear country. Our fathers fought hard to keep this country together during the civil wars. That is a sign we are no cowards. That we offered our hospitality to you was not a sign of foolishness on our part; rather, it was a reflection of our spirits of tolerance,accommodation and kindness. We show you love in the face of your overt aggression against our collective existence because we are a brave people. "  A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave " said Mahatma Ghandi of India. Benue state has great men and women who have distinguished themselves in their various fields of endeavour. We have only chosen to be law-abiding and we will continue to remain law-abiding. You can burn our churches; you can kill our priests; you can abduct our Christian ...

Benue Pogrom: The Way Forward! A Call on Our Leaders! By Ogiri John Ogiri. Your Excellencies Distinguished senators David Mark,Barnabas Gemade and George Akume, the Benue state Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, current and former members of the Benue state Executive Council,our Honorable members of the Federal House of Representatives and Benue State's House of Assembly, Your Royal Highnesses, members of the Benue state traditional council, youth groups, civil society organizations and other well-meaning Benue citizens. It is no longer news that, a war has been declared on our people; that a battle line has been drawn in the Benue valley between the well-armed and highly protected Jihadhists and the unarmed and vulnerable Benue citizens. They want our land by force, they don't want us to go to Church, they don't want us to go to school anymore,they don't want us to go to farm anymore but our land we can't surrender. So they kill us every day. I would like to use this me...

Arise and Defend Yourselves Oh Benue Youth: A Call to Action. By Ogiri John Ogiri. Fellow Benue youths, I must admit in the most sincere way, that these are not the best of times for us; indeed, these are perilous times for us both as a nation and as a people. Since the inception of this administration about three and half years ago until today,we have lost thousands of our dedicated, hardworking yet innocent and hospitable parents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts etc in Agatu,Guma,Logo,Okpokwu,Gwer-East just to mention but a few, to an unfortunate genocidal war, declared on us by the jihadhistFulani herdsmen and terrorists, a war which they have covertly and overtly executed unchallenged and with impunity, in most cases applying the clandestine guerrilla war strategy of preemptive strike and hide using the advantage of the element of surprise. What is our offence? Our only offence is our unconditional hospitality to strangers or visitors. My heart-felt sympathy goes out to th...