Two governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) yesterday clashed over New Year attacks by suspected Fulani
herdsmen in Benue State. Over 50 people were killed in twin attacks on
January 1st in Guma and Logo local government areas, homes of Benue
State Governor Samuel Ortom and his predecessor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam.
Herdsmen, under the aegis of ‘Myetti Allah Kautal Hore’, before the
attacks, had vowed to resist the anti- open grazing law enacted by the
Benue State House of Assembly to check frequent clashes between herders
and farmers.
While the Benue State governor is accusing the
Nasarawa State government of harbouring the perpetrators of the attacks,
Governor Tanko Almakura has blamed the killings on the implementation
of the anti-open grazing law approved last year by Ortom. While speaking
to State House Correspondents after a closed door meeting with
President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, Ortom
disclosed that the killer herdsmen are being camped in Nasarawa State
from where they launched attack against Benue people.
Ortom said
the state had witnessed relative peace since the implementation of the
anti-open grazing law until the killer herdsmen came from Nasarawa State
to attack the people of Benue State. “There has been relative peace
amongst farmers and herdsmen until this militia from Miyetti Allah
Kautal Hore, came and attacked us.
And they are known, we know
where they are. As I talk to you, they are in Tongua in Awe Local
Government in Nasarawa State. That is where these people are camped and
are coming to attack people.
“Just on Monday in Logo local
government, Mobile policemen that were deployed to protect the people
and the land, these militias exchanged fire with them, slaughtered two
mobile policemen,” Ortom said.
But Al-Makura faulted Ortom’s
claim that the Nasarawa State government has carved out a site in Tonga
in Awe Local Government Area from where Fulani marauders launch attacks
on communities in neighbouring areas in Benue State.
Al-makura
said: “I’m really taken back by this statement. It is most unfortunate. I
will like to use this opportunity to say that there is nothing like
that whatsoever. If anything, the Tonga that Ortom is talking about in
Awe Local Government is now the safe haven for displaced persons. As I
speak with you today, there are more than three IDP camps in Awe local
government that quarters and caters for the number of people that have
migrated from Benue to Nasarawa.
“To be specific, they are more
than 7,000 people that are camped in Tonga. So, it is very ironical that
a place that is supposed to be an area that has become a safe haven for
IDPs can now be called a place where militias are camped.
“On
Monday, we held over seven hours of rigorous interfacing with seven
governors, service chiefs and some ministers and all our security
operatives within the states around Benue, and my colleague could not
tell me this; he could not approach me and give me an idea if there is
anything that he saw or is worried about.
“Besides, from all the
discussions we have had on Monday, there was no concrete security report
stigmatizing any part of Nasarawa State as harbouring people that are
coming to attack Benue. “I feel what should be of concern to us as
leaders is the plight of the people and any of such statement that is
inflammatory is likely going to cause more confusion to what is already
there,” Almakura noted.
On his part, Ortom insisted that the best
way out of the increasing killings was the establishment of ranches
across the country. He said ranching of cattle by the herdsmen, like it
is done in other African countries as against the option of creating
‘grazing colonies’, remains the solution to the crisis. The Benue State
governor also rejected plans by the Federal Government to establish
colonies across the country to end the rising incidences of killings by
suspected Fulani herdsmen.
According to him, “I’m waiting to be
briefed about what colonies means, I don’t understand it. But like I
keep saying, for us, the way forward is ranching and up till this time I
am talking to you, the way forward is ranching because it is global
best practice.
And it is not just practice in other parts of the
world, on African soil in Swaziland, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania,
Mozambique, almost all African countries that rear cattle, they ranch.
So, why can’t we do the same thing here? “For the colony thing, I don’t
know what colony is.”
The Benue State governor also pledged to
give all necessary support to the latest security deployment to the
state as directed by the President, even as he lamented that the
herdsmen attacked a contingent of mobile policemen in the affected area,
beheaded two of them and severely injured others.
“I had earlier
briefed Mr. President when this incident took place on January 1st.
After staying back on the ground to do the needful to ensure that we
restore normalcy, I said it was important for me to come personally and
brief him and that has been done.
“I had to brief him. He is also
doing further investigation to know the next line of action. I believe
the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore must be arrested and
prosecuted because we cannot allow impunity to continue to thrive.
And
of course, threat and no action has resulted in this killing and I
think that Mr. President will also do the needful to ensure something is
done,” he said. On allegations that he hired mercenaries from Republic
of Ghana to fight herdsmen, he said: “I’m not aware of this and I don’t
even know about that one, I’m hearing it for the first time. If someone
has done that, it must be this Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, that have done
it.”
On suggestion that fullblown military operational base be
set up in Benue like other places, Ortom said: “Anything that can stop
the killings of my people, I will go for it. I support it.” He also
denied allegation that the killings were in retaliation for the theft of
1,000 cows by some people in the state.
However, Al-makura
blamed the New Year killings in Benue on the implementation of the
anti-open grazing law. Al-Makura said: “It is the implementation of the
anti-grazing law in Benue that has caused the problem and now Nasarawa
State is being infected by the problem notwithstanding that we are being
our brothers’ keepers and good neighbours. “I had to cut short my leave
and come to find ways of helping my colleague.
We have called
all our security to meet to find ways and means of helping Benue and if
all efforts we have done and with all the relief materials we have given
and the protection to the IDPs that were created, that certain parts of
Nasarawa State can now be stigmatized with this allegation is, to say
the least, most uncalled for and most unfortunate.
“We will still
continue to render whatever assistance that we can give to the IDPs
from Benue because we have some Tiv people that live in Nasarawa in
virtually all the three or four local governments that share boundary
with Benue State.
We are duty bound as a responsible
administration to cater for all. “And the Tonga he is talking about is a
town within three states, that is Goa in Benue, Shanda, Ibi in Cross
River. So anybody can fly through the River to go and attack in Benue.
“And don’t forget the obscurity of the wilderness which is very porous
and anybody can move from any part to any place to attack any place.
“So, as far as I am concerned, there is nobody keeping anybody anywhere
in Nasarawa State.”
Source: www.newtelegraphonline.com