Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has commended President the Muhammadu Buhari led administration for heeding his call and finally labelling bandits wreaking havoc across the country as terrorists, but said the decision was not far-reaching enough; “this is not enough.”
He said the action of the federal government would be completed when groups like Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM are also labelled as terrorists.
The Governor who in a statement issued Thursday in Makurdi by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur was reacting to the recent interview President Buhari granted Channels Television insisted that the step taken by the federal government now would go a long way to contain the atrocities of the criminals and give Nigerians the opportunities to go about their legitimate businesses unmolested.
According to the Governor, “even though the federal government’s measures on bandits now seems strong, the security challenges will only be adequately addressed if the 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-open grazing laws.
“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. Our law 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 was 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 a 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 had since ran out of ideas pointing out that “they have exhausted all their lies and have nothing more to tell Nigerians.”
