Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Friday raised the alarm that Fulani herdsmen had concluded plans to lie in ambush and kill him along Makurdi-Lafia highway, the only route that connects Abuja to Benue.
Speaking during an interactive session with stakeholders on how to ensure peace during the forthcoming 2019 general elections in the state, the governor explained that he had received intelligence report about the plan to kidnap and kill him.
The event was organised by the Makurdi Catholic Diocese and it held at the Pastoral Centre, Makurdi, the state capital.
The governor, who spoke in Tiv dialect, disclosed that he got an intelligence report, which indicated that Fulani herdsmen currently occupying part of the Guma Local Government Area of the state were already hatching a plan to attack him along the axis.
He said, “The armed herdsmen, according to the intelligence report, would ensure that all my security aides were killed after which they would kidnap, torture and kill me.
“Already, l had reported the matter to the police and other security agencies and they are aware of this.
“Therefore, anytime l sleep and wake up and my spirit doesn’t allow me to travel by road, I would call flight operators. But a few days ago, the Federal Government issued a circular directing that no flight should land in Makurdi airport again.”
Ortom, who also alleged that some Benue indigenes were conniving with other forces in Abuja to kill him, stressed the need for the Federal Government to urgently bring an end to the killings by herdsmen across the country ahead of the 2019 elections.
He said most of the polling units in the crisis-hit areas had been destroyed and taken over by the gun-wielding herders as their grazing fields.
He said, “The killings across Nigeria is a deliberate attempt by some people who are either Boko Haram members, armed bandits or herdsmen working for the same purpose to disenfranchise a large proportion of Nigerians from voting for the leaders of their choices.
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“Amnesty International had come out to disclose that over 19,000 people have lost their lives to herdsmen attacks in Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Nasarawa and Plateau states and this does not speak well of Nigeria, especially as we head towards 2019.”
While lamenting that Benue indigenes have become destitute and refugees in their own lands, Ortom further disclosed that pockets of killings were still ongoing in Makurdi, Guma, Logo and Katsina Ala local government areas of the state.
While calling on the international community to beam its searchlights on states affected by herdsmen crisis, the governor enjoined traditional rulers to enlighten their subjects on the need to register for permanent voter cards so as to participate in the 2019 elections.
In his remarks, Catholic Bishop of Makurdi, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, disclosed that over 306 traditional rulers, youths, members of both Catholic Women Organisation and Catholic Men Organisation, as well as other stakeholders, were invited for the meeting to educate them on the need for a violence-free election in 2019.
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Meanwhile, responding to the allegation by the governor that some herdsmen had concluded plans to kill him, the Coordinator of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria in Benue State, Alhaji Garus Gololo, said there was no such plan by herdsmen to attack the governor.
Gololo described the association as a respectable and law-abiding organisation in Nigeria.
He said, “It is not true; we don’t have problem with anybody in Nigeria or Benue State. What business does Miyetti Allah have with kidnapping? We are not kidnappers or a criminal organisation. We are a peaceful organisation and whoever gave such information to him should be invited by security agents.
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