Political and religious leaders from the Middle belt, have vowed to resist any plans by powerful individuals to annex their ancestral lands to marauding herdsmen.

They said the ongoing massacre of people from the Middle belt and southern Nigeria by herdsmen, is part of a grand plan to take over territories.

They also condemned recent verbal attacks on some religious and former military leaders from the region by those they described as mercenaries.

National president of Middle Belt Forum, Dr Bitrus Pogu, in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday, said attempts to silent voices of critical stakeholders by agents of government will fail.

He said: “The attention of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) has been drawn to a statement credited to an amorphous group that calls itself the Middle Belt Conscience Guard (MBCG).

“In its publication, the said group did not hide its desperate intention to rubbish the former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd), former military governor of old Rivers state, Gen. Zamani Lekwot (rtd), among other notable members of the Nigerian Christian Elders’ Forum (NCEF) over their written submission to the United Kingdom Parliament on the ongoing killings across communities of the Middle Belt and other parts of Nigeria.

“The Forum considers the position of the so-called conscience group as a deliberate falsehood that is aimed at misleading the unsuspecting public through foisting diversionary plot to draw the attention of the public away  from the heinous genocide being perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen terrorists across the Middle Belt and other parts of the country in pursuit of the ‘Fulanisation’ agenda as earlier raised in the  by other notable persons and groups.

“This plan to subjugate and conquer our people and Southern Nigeria will be vehemently resisted.

“In the past four years of the Buhari administration, tens of thousands of Nigerians have been decimated, with several thousands killed on account of Fulani herdsmen terrorists invasion of peaceful communitues across the country.  Despite the troubling death toll, none of the culprits have been arrested or brought to book.

“For avoidance of doubt, we wish to inform Nigerians and the international community that the Middle Belt peoples are now victims of a conspiracy to subjugate them and disinherit them of their ancestral lands.

“We are calling on men and women of good conscience to spare no efforts in exposing the ongoing heinous crimes against humanity in a bid to unveil the dark spot of human conscience surrounding the massacres of Nigerians and destruction of communities in the Middle Belt region and other parts of the country.”