Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has called for the suspension of the 2023 National Population and Housing Census scheduled for May due to insecurity and to pave way for Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs) in the North Central geopolitical zone to return and resettle in their ancestral homes.
Ortom made the suggestion on Thursday in Makurdi when he received leaders of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) who were in the state to commiserate with him over the killing of over 134 persons by suspected herdsmen.
While addressing the MBF led by its National President, Dr Bitrus Pogu, Ortom said it had become necessary for the Federal Government to shift the census as over two million indigenes of the state were still living in IDP camps and will not be counted because they need to be in their localities before they can participate in the exercise.
