Governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom has cried
out to the public over the recent killings in the state by Fulani
Herdsmen, saying that the Presidency has ‘abandoned’ him.
Ortom
pointed fingers at those around the president, saying that they were
frustrating his efforts to present a true account of events to the
president due to selfish reasons.
Speaking to Vanguard, Ortom
further stated that he was losing control of things as the people of his
state now take laws into their own hands. He said;
“Let me be
frank. The Federal Government has not done enough. When this incidence
started with the threat from the president and secretary of Miyetti
Allah, Kauta Hore, who addressed a press conference and issued threats
that they will do everything possible to frustrate the Benue State
Government from implementing the anti-open grazing law, we quickly drew
the attention of the Inspector General of Police, the Director-General
of the Department of State Services, DSS, and even the office of the
National Security Adviser.
The leadership of Miyetti Allah called
the law names: that it was draconian and had no place in the 21st
century. We saw that as a threat to our existence and in June 2016, we
reported to the then acting president (Prof. Yemi Osinbajo) and to our
surprise, these people were not apprehended.
When they saw that
no one was going to apprehend them, they went further to issue more
threats. In October 2016, we reminded the IGP, the DSS and the NSA of
the potential violence that we faced in Benue State as a result of the
threat from the Miyetti Allah. We, specifically, demanded that the two
officers of the Miyetti Allah, the secretary and the president, be
arrested, but unfortunately, they were not arrested. I do not know why
the Federal Government has abandoned us. If they had acted that time, we
would not have gotten to where we are today.”
The stressed
governor said that due to the continued killings of innocent Benue
Indigenes by Fulani Herdsmen, the people have now decided to take laws
into their hands.
“You can see that it is getting beyond me. Even
when there was protest against the recent killings in Makurdi, and I
went there, there was massive resistance. It became violent and it is
even God that saved us. I would have been attacked.
When I came
into office, there was proliferation of arms and ammunition in the
state. I declared an amnesty programme that saw massive retrieval of
arms from our youths. I pleaded with them that the way to develop is not
by taking the laws into their hands but by obeying the laws. I have
resisted the temptation to say that our people should protect themselves
because I trusted the president.
I believed that he has the
capacity to protect us. But from what is happening, I am sure some
people around him are frustrating our communication with him and the
actions to be taken. Otherwise, the president I know will not allow this
kind of thing to be happening. We have not committed any offence.
We
have no regret passing the anti-open grazing law. The law came as a
necessity because of the killings in Benue State by the herdsmen. We
sought peaceful ways of resolving the matter but we could not.
We
tried everything under the sun to ensure that we stopped these killings
but it was not possible so we prayed and God gave us the wisdom to
enact that law, which gives protection to the farmers and the herdsmen.
“We
have not sent cattle rearers away from Benue, we are simply saying
there are modern ways of rearing cattle, which is to ranch them. With
that, farmers can go their legitimate ways of doing their business and
those who are rearing cattle can also continue. I am surprised at the
resistance of the herders.”