Governor Ortom of Benue State warns against inflammatory comments

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has warned those raising false alarms and creating inflammatory statements relating to the safety situation in Makurdi, the capital to refrain from or face arrest.

Ortom described as unfortunate, the tendency of some persons to exaggerate the situation in the state, thereby inflicting fear within the minds of the people. He maintained that such alarms might create panic and give hoodlums the chance to harass, rob and even kill innocent people.

In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, the governor said the protests  in Makurdi, last week, have been brought in restraint, just as he urged the Police to apprehend anyone found fomenting hassle.

Ortom assured Benue people of government’s commitment to preventing more invasion and killings by herdsmen in parts of the state, and appealed to residents of Makurdi to go about their normal activities without the fear of molestation and assist security agencies with timely and useful info to enable them perform their duty of safeguarding lives.

In another development, a group known as Movement Against Fulani Occupation (MAFO) has also called on the federal government to declare Miyetti Allah a terrorist organisation and ensure the arrest and prosecution of their leaders of Miyetti Allah, whom they said had owned up to the Benue killing.

Speaking at a conference on Monday, one of the spokespersons of the group, Dr. Sam Abah, who read the position of the MAFO urged the federal government to boost up the current security presence inside Benue to incorporate active searches for and flushing out of all Fulani terror gangs that are openly roaming across the state.

The group also enjoined the federal government to set in motion, a machinery for the reconstruction, bill tattoo and compensation of Benue communities that have been ravaged  by over 47 separate attacks from 2011-2018

Meanwhile, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagugu of Kebbi State on Tuesday has said Fulani herdsmen need help to change their old lifestyle, old pastoral practices, and education of their children.

Bagudu noted that herdsmen have recently been labelled as criminals because of killings in Benue, Zamfara and Nasarawa states.

“Not all Fulani herdsmen are criminals; these  killings don't have anything to do with religion. it's just about lifestyle that require to change.”

Bagudu stated this during the disbursement of N93,724,821 to communities under the Kebbi State Community and Social Development Project (KB-CSDP).

He continues: “These are people that move around with their animals. The social group pressure and environmental changes have made this pastoral practises tough. i used to be in the Senate in 2014 and we set up an advert hoc committee and the mission was to visit six states; Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Katsina Zamfara states, where farmers and Fulani clashes occurred. part of our findings was that, altogether these states, citizens of various teams who are acting like herdsmen, some of these herdsmen, am not saying we don’t have criminals among them,but we've several of them who are simply doing their pastoral and the criminal activities are affecting their lives.

  “It is vital that we participate in dialogue that would ensure that the pastoral, herdsmen problems come first, not religion problems. it's an economic issue. These people are risking their lives, it's high time their lifestyle change, whether in Kebbi or in Benue states. So,I think it's now apt for all of us to assist them. it's high time we help them so they will begin to enhance their lives,s end their children to schools and be agents of economic amendment