BREAKING NEWS : Herdsmen take over Gov. Ortom’s home; kill 50, destroy rice farm.

MAKURDI – Governor
Samuel Ortom of Benue state, yesterday disclosed that his country home
has been sacked by Fulani mercenaries who also killed
over 50 of his
kinsmen after which they razed over 200 hectares of his rice farm.

He lamented that the incessant killings and destruction of lives and
property in the Benue had created a 25 year retrogression of development
 in the state.

The Governor made this known when he received the All Progressives
Congress, APC Governors’ Forum led by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo
state, who paid him condolence visit over the invasion of Agatu and
other parts of Benue by the herdsmen.

According to him, “the mercenaries invaded my village, killed over 50
persons and destroying over 200 hectares of my rice farm. As I am
sitting here, I have no ancestral home, they killed children, old men
and women in my community.”

“The mercenaries come to Benue not just to graze but to steal, kill and
destroy the livelihood of the agrarian people after which they take
possession of the land knowing fully well that all we have here are our
farms.”

“The truth is that these attacks have brought a major setback to the
people especially with our declining revenue from the federal allocation
 which was about N7 billion before i assumed office but this month stood
 at N1.3billion while our monthly wage bill stands at close to
N4billion.

The Governor lamented that even after President Buhari had directed that
 soldiers and mobile police men should be deployed to the state, there
had not been any reports of the arrest of people behind the heinous
crime.

Ortom who advocated the ranching of cows in the country, recalled that
Benue people had lived peacefully with Fulani herdsmen until four years
ago when the crisis started stressing that the state had not known peace
 since then.

Responding on behalf of his colleagues, Governor Okorocha said the
documentary shown to the Governors on the invasion of Benue by herdsmen
was quite revealing and the killings condemnable.

He said “we are here to show solidarity and our dislike to what happened
 here, a criminal is a criminal whether they are Boko Haram, herdsmen or
 whichever group; Benue state is central and key in Nigerian politics
and these killings have to stop in the interest of peaceful coexistence
of our people.