- Cautions Governor Elect, Rev. Fr. Alia Against Unguarded utterances
- Promised To Retire To His Farm
By Charles Adingupu
With just few weeks to the end of his administration, the Benue State Governor, Samuel Loraer Ortom has alerted that suspected herdsmen have resumed their killing spree as 18 out the 23 local government areas in the state are currently underseiged.
The outgoing Governor who made this disclosure at the Arise TV Morning Show on Friday, said that no fewer than five thousand persons have been slaughtered by the ravaging suspected herdsmen whose main preoccupation in Benue State was land grabbing.
He disclosed that at the moment, indigenes of Benue are killed on daily basis and being dispossessed of their ancestral homeland.
“There was a case in a particular village where the herdsmen killed three persons, the villagers were busy burying their dead, the herdsmen regrouped, and launched fresh attack on the mourners. This time, the casualty figure was something else,” Ortom lamented
According to him, most of the villages have been overran by the herders who are currently feeding fat on the farm of sacked Benue indigenes.
Ortem disclosed that no fewer than five thousand Benue State indigenes are currently taking refuge in various IDP camps, as the figure is most likely to double before the end of his administration.
The Governor who attributed his electoral defeat to the high headedness of security Operatives deployed to keep the peace in the state during election, engaged in assisting the opposition party to rig the elections.
He indicted the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC for changing the goal post in the middle of the game by refusing to transmit the election results via IRev as initially agreed upon.
Despite all the anomalies perpetrated in the election by the opposition party which he has as evidence to challenge the election results, Ortom disclosed his resolve to sheath his sword.
The Governor said his people have suffered so much in the land, adding that engaging the incoming government with litigation that no one knows the end would further worsen the case of his people as governance would suffer in the process. “When two elephants engage in a duel, it’s the grass that suffers,” he enthused.
“I have all my evidence to prove that the elections were rigged by the opposition of the All Progressives Congress, APC with the deployment of federal might. But I won’t go to the Tribunal to challenge the result. My people have suffered so much, and doing so will further enhance their hardships,” he said.
Ortem who disclosed his immediate plans to retire to his farm and the business world at the end of his tenure as Governor, thanked the people of Benue for their immense support he enjoyed from them all through his adventure in the turbulent waters of Nigeria’s politics.
He insisted that the G-5 Governors made remarkable impact on the just concluded general elections even though most of them failed to secure victory in their respective states.
Ortem posited that were it not for the G-5 Governors, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP would have won the presidential election, adding that for equity and fairness, they stuck to their guns that the next Nigeria’s President must come from the South.
“When we first held our meeting in Asaba, Delta State capital, I was the only Governor from the North who stated loud and clear that the next President must come from the South for equity, fairness and justice,” he said.
Ortem Cautions the Governor Elect, Rev father Hyacinth Alia to desist from making unguarded utterances and wait until May when he will be sworn in as the Governor of Benue State.
He disclosed that a transition committee has been inaugurated, headed by his SSG as heads of the different parastatals have been enjoined to submit their report preparatory to the handover.
