Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has approved the setting up of arm-bearing vigilante group to help fight the growing insecurity in the state.
He made this known to newsmen on Thursday while briefing them on some of the things the expanded stakeholders’ meeting held at the new banquet hall of the state Government House arrived at.
He said his administration to address the unprovoked attacks in the state, had decided to enforce “the law to provide for the establishment of community volunteer guards.”
According to him, the recruitment process would kick-off immediately and would recruit those between the age range of 18 to 50. He added that most of them would be drawn from ex-servicemen.
“Those to be recruited are ex-servicemen and people from 18 to 50 years, and they must have stable sources of income and must have lived in their respective communities for a minimum of six years and they must be of impeccable characters and be loyal.
“All the vigilantes must carry weapons that are licensed so that anytime there is external aggression, they must be able to rise up to defend themselves,” he said.
Noting that the state government has been mandated to support the vigilantes with logistics as provided in the law, Ortom added that the recruitment of personnel would be carried out in the 23 local government areas of the state.