18 Benue LGs under siege, says Ortom

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, said on Thursday that he will continue to prevent the invasion and killing of his people by herdsmen with the last drop of his blood.

Ortom stated this during a press conference at the Government House, Makurdi while reacting to a statement by a northern group purportedly led by the former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi.

The governor, who exonerated himself and his government from the air strike that killed several people in a settlement in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, said the purported statement by the former Kano Emir, Sanusi Lamido, was an attempt to profile him as a hater of Fulanis.

Ortom alleged that since his administration enacted the law prohibiting open grazing in 2017, he had been a target of the Fulani militias, adding that he had escaped seven attempts on his life.

The governor said the Fulani invasion of the state assumed a dangerous dimension in 2011, adding that over 6,000 people had been killed and over two million people had been displaced.

“The new plot is to eliminate me. I have given myself as a sacrifice for my people, who gave me their mandate in 2015 and 2019. I will continue to expose all the evil intentions.

“I am ready to shed the last pint of my blood not to allow the Fulanis to take over Tiv land, Idoma land, and Igede land,” he said.

Ortom claimed that 18 out of the 23 local government areas of the state were under siege and added that Fulani herders had attacked the state over 50 times since 2011.

While exonerating himself from the air strike in Nasarawa State, Ortom said, “I must state categorically that the Benue State Government under my leadership has no hand in the Akwanaja incident. Linking me with the bomb attack in Doma, Nasarawa State is the most unfair thing anyone would do to me.”