Benue State governor, Chief Samuel Ortom, has raised the alarm that his people were being suffocated by the invading herdsmen.
The governor, who spoke while receiving the House of Representatives members on Complaint and Public Safety, at the Government House, Makurdi, lamented the pains the people are passing through due to the invasion of the herdsmen, which he said, had already been compounded by economic hardship.
“This is a trying period for us in Benue State. At present, we cannot pay salary of workers due to reduction in federal allocation to the state and the only area we ought to get succour is farming, which many of us have embraced. Regrettably, no one can go into farming now since the herdsmen have taken over our farmlands’.
“As I am talking to you, about eight local government areas in the state had already been taken over by the Fulani herdsmen.”
The council areas are; Buruku, Tarka, Guma, Gwer West, Makurdi, Katsina Ala, Kwande and Agatu.
The governor, who lamented the poor state of the economy and the pains the herdsmen had already inflicted on the people of the state, said there is the need to assist the affected people.
He, however, criticised the policy of creating grazing routes and grazing land for cattle as archaic, saying that ‘in Benue State, we do not have land for grazing.
Ortom urged the government to follow Europe and other nations that had embraced cattle ranch where basic infrastructure are provided for herdsmen
Earlier, the committee chairman, Honourable Aminu Jaji, had said that his committee was in the state on a fact finding mission on the crisis, saying that the house regretted the killings that took place in Agatu Local Government Area of the state. – Tribune.
