A group of youths suspected to be hunters and forest security guards was spotted to have shaved a young lady’s hair in Makurdi, Benue State capital.
Members of the group were said to have gone after people in the state capital who reportedly dyed or coloured their hair, intercept them in broad daylight, and shaved their hair using unsterilised scissors
In video links currently being circulated on social media, the incidents were said to have happened on Monday and Tuesday in Makurdi.
In the video, some young men were seen with unsterilised scissors shaving the hair of a young lady publicly while other members of the group shot sporadically into the air after they forcefully stopped the motorcycle the lady was riding on.
The ugly development triggered verbal protests both on the social media and across the state with many people calling for the arrest of the leadership of the Hunters Security outfit.
Meanwhile, the State Governor, Samuel Ortom on Wednesday ordered the immediate arrest of the leaders of the group which he described as an ‘illegal group of Hunters and Forests Security Guards.
Ortom, in a statement issued by his media aide, Nathaniel Ikyur, said, “members of the illegal organisation which forcefully shaved a young lady’s hair on the street of Makurdi are not an agency of the state government.”
He maintained that the state government had no relationship with Hunter’s security outfit and would not in any way condone their operations in the state.
“The Hunters and Forest Security Guards is not a creation of the Benue State Government and we absolutely do not have any relationship with it in whatever form. As the Chief Security Officer of the State, I am appalled by the unlawful acts of these people and I condemn this in unequivocal terms and state categorically that my government has nothing to do with this group and its actions,” he said.
Ortom said that his government did not condone injustice of any form and inhumane treatment of persons based on gender, social, political-religious, or ethnic segregation.
He emphasised that, as a government that had been at the forefront of the fight against insecurity and all forms of injustice and discrimination against her people, he would not fold his arms and watch some lawless persons maltreat his subjects.
“I have repeatedly maintained that I will never allow criminals to take over the state. Benue citizens are law-abiding and we cannot allow illegal bodies to operate and harass people here.”
However, the statement further said that some leaders of the illegal group were arrested on Wednesday.
Those arrested include; Ajonye Peter, State Commandant, Leva Luther, Deputy Commandant, Jov Peter Charles, Admin Officer, and Godwin Adinya, State Adviser.
Ortom charged the police to properly investigate those involved in the act and ensure that justice was done in order to serve as a deterrent to other persons or groups that may want to take laws into their hands to visit mayhem on innocent citizens.
