Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured the leadership of Benue State that he would not shield or protect any criminal who maimed and killed the people in any part of the state and the entire country.

This was even as he has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to arrest and prosecute the perpetrators of the recent killings in Benue State.

The president said this at a meeting with leaders of thought from Benue State over the recent killings in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

On his part Governor Samuel Ortom has said even though he now understands the difference between colony and ranching, but Benue State does not have 10,000 hectares the Federal Government was requesting for the establishment of colonies for cattle rearing.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who is a Benue indigenes, however, has been busing explaining the need for colonies that would solve the continued herdsmen/farmers conflict in parts of the country.

Governor Ortom, while reiterating that his administration did not arm militias, however, described the allegations as ‘diversionary’ that was meant to turn facts to fiction in the matter.