By Ogechi Okorie
Markurdi (Precise Post) – Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday reiterated his call on President Muhammadu Buhari to move a step further and declare all the Fulani socio-cultural organisations terrorists.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, the governor applauded the President for heeding his call to finally label bandits wreaking havoc on citizens across the country as terrorists, but said “this is not enough.”
The governor called on the President to be bold enough to go a step further and declare Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, and Fulani Nationality Movement as terrorist organisations just as it has done to other groups”.
“Though the Federal Government’s measures on bandits now seems strong, the security challenges will only be adequately addressed if similar hard position is taken on Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MACBAN and the Fulani Nationality Movement who have vowed and continued to cause mayhem in Benue State and other parts of the country because of the anti-grazing laws.”
“For us in Benue State, the law has come to stay. It is irrevocable. In fact, we have maintained our position that Benue State has no grazing routes, reserves or areas whatsoever. It was enacted in good faith for peace and order in the state. It was done among other things to end the incessant farmers/herdsmen clashes in the state,” the statement read in parts.
Ortom also tasked the President to do all that is necessary to revamp the ailing economy and save citizens from poverty saying, “Nigerians have absorbed enough hunger and misery in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) misrule. Or is it possible that Mr. President is not aware that Nigerians are dying from his misrule.”
Ortom dismissed the President’s tagging of the PDP as failure, saying that “as a critical stakeholder of the PDP, this is completely false. If anyone has failed, it is the Buhari-led APC federal government that has failed by taking Nigeria from top to bottom.”
He however declared that “the PDP is ready to rescue Nigeria from the insecurity and economic horror placed on Nigerians by the APC, stressing that the party is better prepared with laudable programmes on the welfare of Nigerians and to rebuild the nation from the APC tale of woes.
He added that from all indications, the APC administration has since ran out of ideas pointing out that “they have exhausted all their lies and have nothing more to tell Nigerians.”
When contacted on the telephone, the Spokesman for Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhassan Saleh, said it is the governor that should be declared a terrorist.
Saleh said Ortom had also been known to protect terrorists and hence should not be taken seriously.
He said, “He (Ortom) is the one who is supposed to be declared a terrorist because he is in the camp of terrorists.
“We don’t have time for such a confused governor. Who takes him seriously again? He is habouring terrorists and killer gangs in his government. We don’t have any relationship with the bandits.
“So he is the one to be declared a terrorist sponsor. How many of his security advisers have been killed. He has not explained that. When they killed Gana Terwase, the terrorist he groomed, he was virtually crying in public.”
The General Secretary of MACBAN, Usman Ngelzerma, said he would provide a response soon.
Punch
