…. Says acussasions were to set him up

By Titus Atondu, Makurdi

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has dismissed the write up against him signed by the deposed Emir of Kano Lamido Sanusi and other 51 personalities of the Fulani extraction to Président Buhari accusing him of being responsible for the recent killing of some pastoralists at Akwanaja, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State via a bomb attack.

Ortom also revealed that Sanusi and Co. tried to link the Benue State Livestock Guards with the killings, claiming that the pastoralists were bombed on their way from Benue to Nasarawa after they had retrieved their cattle.

He further stated that the accusations made against him was a desperate attempt to set him up for hatred, vilification and attacks.

Governor Ortom made this known Makurdi while addressing a press conference in response to the malicious write up against him by the Fulani elites, explained that the group maliciously accused him of carrying out genocide against pastoralists and added that the dethroned Emir did not stop at that, he made a video in Hausa in which he maligned his personality and called on all Fulanis to consider him as their enemy while urging those in Benue State to vote against him during the coming elections.

Ortom said he consider these allegations and blackmail targeted at his person and the Government of Benue State as part of a grand conspiracy by enemies of the state to eliminate him Since 2017 when he enacted the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law.

“I have escaped seven assassination attempts. Those behind the evil plots have not hidden their motive. They have made me an enemy for choosing to stand with my people and defending their rights to life and freedom.

“You will recall that on the 20th of March, 2021, I was attacked at Tyo-Mu along Makurdi-Gboko road by herdsmen. After the attempt on my life, a group named Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) issued a press statement taking responsibility for the assassination attempt. They said I escaped because of a technical error, but that I wouldn’t be lucky another time. They vowed to get me at all costs. The recent utterances of some personalities such as Lamido Sanusi have revealed the true identities of those behind the sinister agenda to eliminate me. But my life is in the hands of God and only He can permit anything evil to come my way.” Ortom stressed.

The Governor further explained that Benue State Livestock Guards operate within the boundaries of Benue State and are not permitted by law to bear arms and their primary function is to help the conventional security agencies in enforcing the law which protects both the farmer and the herder.

He noticed that the Guards have become target of attacks by armed herdsmen with many of them killed in cold blood. Benue State Livestock Guards do not rustle cattle. They legitimately impound cattle which are seen violating the law and take them to the quarantine unit for the period stipulated by the law.

” Let me remind those castigating me unjustifiably that nomadic herdsmen attacks on farmers in Benue state date back to 2009; however, 2011 was when the attacks assumed a dreadful dimension with widespread killings, injury and displacement of farmers from their ancestral homes. Benue State came under attack nearly 50 times before the law was enacted. My predecessor, Senator Gabriel Suswam was nearly killed by Fulani herdsmen in 2014 at Uikpan on his way to Torkula village in Guma local government area to see the damage caused by herdsmen in the community.

” When I was voted as Governor in 2015, my people who are predominantly farmers requested for a policy that would not only end hostilities and attacks on them by nomadic herdsmen, but would also allow both parties to peacefully coexist. As a result, the State Executive Council sent a bill to the State House of Assembly and the “Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Bill” was passed by the House of Assembly on 4th May, 2017 after public hearings were held in the three Senatorial Districts of the state. The law was enacted by representatives of the people in the Benue State House of Assembly, in exercise of its powers as provided for by Section 4 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). Part 2 of the Second Schedule reinforces the power of the State House of the Assembly providing that “a House of Assembly may make laws for the State with respect to industrial, commercial or agricultural development.

” I publicly assented to the law in the presence of Benue State stakeholders on the 22nd of May, 2017. A six-month moratorium was allowed to create awareness about the Law and to enable those interested in establishing ranches to make proper arrangements to embrace what is considered as the global best practice of animal husbandry. Enforcement of the Law began on 1st November, 2017. The law does not target any ethnic group. It is meant to bring peace between herders and farmers.” The Governor explained.

He stated that It is public knowledge that right from the day the law came into effect, umbrella bodies of nomadic herders boldly came out with impunity and said they would never obey the law and vowed to mobilize Fulanis across the West African sub-region to invade Benue State and stop implementation of the law.

” They actualized their threats on the eve of the 2018 new year when they carried out simultaneous attacks on Guma and Logo local government areas killing 73 people whom we painfully gave a mass burial in Makurdi on January 11, 2018.

“Fulani herdsmen attacks on my people in the last couple of years have caused a devastating humanitarian crisis resulting in the killing of over 6,000 Benue people and the displacement of about two million others with many living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. Our people have suffered the organized genocide masked in terrorism, not because they do not know their attackers. Benue people know those who are visiting them with unprovoked violence and killings, but as law-abiding citizens of Nigeria, we have chosen to sustain our belief in the conventional security agencies of this country.

“Now, the enemy has turned round to accuse our people of being the aggressors. Their aim is to blame the victim in order to launch more attacks on the state. On the 31st of January, 2023, armed herders blocked the Makurdi-Naka road and killed innocent people including the Divisional Police Officer of Gwer-West local government area of Benue State.” Ortom said.

Ortom advised the persons who wrote to the President claiming to have the interest of Nigeria at heart to stop playing politics with security matters.

He warned the conspirators that he can never be intimidated by any group of people being knowledgeable enough that it is only God that has exclusive power over his life and no living creature can take away his life unjustly if God doesn’t permit.