From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has lamented that the state is under the siege of the Fulani herdsmen, warning that the people of the state may resort to self-help if nothing is done to curtail the excesses of the rampaging herdsmen.
Ortom, who gave the warning yesterday against the backdrop of the attack on Agwabi Village in Buruku by Fulani herders at the weekend in which many persons were killed, said his people are being pressed to the wall and could react.
“We are being pressed to the wall and this is not right. I have been restraining my people that two wrongs do not make a right. Should I also allow my people to take arms against these people? Is that the right thing to do? But we are being pushed to the wall and it is beyond imagination that this mayhem will continue. And we have contacted the Army and the Presidency yet nothing is happening to these people.
“These wicked mercenaries wearing the name of herdsmen are out to destroy Benue and the worst thing is that they attack people and destroy their property and kill them. This is beyond the state. The president has given directive, the Army the police must come out and get these people arrested.
“I have told my people not to take up arms against these people but there is a limit to how I can appeal to my people to refrain themselves. If all of my people are killed, then I will be the next target. That is the truth. If not, how can every single day, you hear about killings?
“Let us also hear that the police have apprehended them or the soldiers have killed them. Why is it that these people are above the law. How can they be in this country and no policeman is arresting them, no one is killing them? The military is there, they soldiers are there. So, something needs to be done. I think that we need additional troop.”
The Governor who reiterated his earlier stance that there is no land for grazing in the state stressed the need for the herders to ranch their cattle like it is done in America, Europe, Australia, Swaziland and other climes of the world.