Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has commended the President Muhammadu Buhari for heeding his call and finally declaring bandits wreaking havoc in the country as terrorists, but said “this is not enough.”
His Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, said the governor urged the President to be bold enough and go a step further to declare Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) as terrorist organisations as it had done to other groups.
The governor, who was reacting to the interview President Buhari granted Channels Television on January 5, 2022 insisted that the step taken by the Federal government would go a long way to contain the atrocities of the criminals and give citizens opportunities to go about their legitimate businesses unmolested.
According to the governor, “even though the Federal government’s measures on bandits now seem strong, the security challenges will only be adequately addressed if similar hard position is taken on Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MACBAN and the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) who have vowed and continued to cause mayhem in Benue State and other parts of the country because of the anti-grazing laws.”
The governor continued: “For us in Benue State, the law has come to stay. It is irrevocable. In fact, we have maintained our position that Benue State has no grazing routes, reserves or areas whatsoever. It was enacted in good faith for peace and order in the State. It was done among other things to end the incessant farmers/herdsmen clashes in the State.”
Governor Ortom also tasked the President to do all that is necessary to revamp the ailing economy and save citizens from poverty, saying: “Nigerians have absorbed enough hunger and misery in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) misrule. Or is it possible that Mr. President is not aware that Nigerians are dying from his misrule.”
He dismissed the President’s tagging of the PDP as failure, insisting that “as a critical stakeholder of the PDP, this is completely false. If anyone has failed, it is the Buhari-led APC Federal government that has failed by taking Nigeria from top to bottom.”
Governor Ortom declared that “the PDP is ready to rescue Nigeria from the insecurity and economic horror placed on Nigerians by the APC, stressing that the party is better prepared with laudable programmes on the welfare of Nigerians and to rebuild the nation from the APC tale of woes.
He added that from all indications, the APC administration has since run out of ideas, insisting that “they have exhausted all their lies and have nothing more to tell Nigerians.”