Herdsmen attack: I no longer have ancestral home – Governor Ortom laments

      

Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom yesterday stated that his home town has been sacked by suspected Fulani cattle rearers. He added that over 50 of his kinsmen had been killed with over 200 hectares of his rice farm razed.The Governor cried out that the destructive activities of the herdsmen in the state had created a 25-year backwardness in the state.
Ortom was speaking when he received the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governors’ Forum, led by Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, who paid him condolence visit over the invasion of Agatu and other parts of Benue by the herdsmen.

He said, “The mercenaries invaded my village, killed over 50 persons and destroyed 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 full well that all we have here are our farms

“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 N1.3 billion, while our monthly wage bill stands at close to N4 billion.”
The Governor lamented that even after President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that soldiers and mobile policemen should be deployed to the state, there had not been any report of the arrest of people behind the crime.
While noting that the state has not known peace since the past four years when crisis started, he stated that Benue people had lived peacefully with Fulani herdsmen before now.