President Muhammadu Buhari will
today meet with Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom and other stakeholders from
the state – in a bid to resolve the crisis sparked by the herdsmen killings.
No fewer than 73 victims of the
herdsmen’s actions were buried at the weekend. Over 60,000 displaced persons
are in five camps.
Confirming the development on Sunday, Ogbeh said he would join his kinsman in the Villa to proffer
the way forward on the killings in the state.
“Yes, they just called to inform
me that the governor and his entourage would be coming to have a meeting with
the president on the attacks on farmers in the state”, he said.
Also speaking ahead of the
meeting, the state governor, Ortom, said he had ordered the arrest of those
instigating the Tiv-Hausa clash or any form of ethnic crisis.
Ortom demanded the arrest of the
leaders of Miyyeti Allah Kautal Hore, especially its President Abdullahi Bello
Bodejo, and National Secretary Saleh Alhassan.
Ortom said: “We are meeting on
Monday. The stakeholders are going to meet with the President. The stakeholders
will see whatever the Federal Government is able to put on the table and if the
stakeholders accept, I will abide by it.
“It is Benue stakeholders. It is
at our own instance; we requested that we are going to meet with him.
“So far, we have over 60,000
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), but we are still counting. We look forward
to these people going back home very soon. Some had to run away out of fear
because of the way these people came to attack. They came around 2am, 3am, 5am
in the dead of the night.
“It was more of a guerrilla war
against the people. In some cases, they did not even shoot guns so that the
next person would not hear. They come to your house, wake you up and slash your
throat.
“We are doing our best but the
situation is under control. For the past four days, we had no news of any
killings. It was only on Saturday that I heard that one person was killed. I am
yet to get full briefing on that.”
Asked of what will be his
response to offers by the Presidency, Ortom replied: “I am very open, I am a
democratically elected governor; it is what the people want that I go with.
“So, if you are able to convince
my people that we can tinker with the law or do whatever, I am ready to go. I
have no hard feelings about it.
“I will do whatever can bring
progress and stop these mindless killings whether they are Fulani or herdsmen,
Hausa, Igbo or Tiv, Idoma or Igede; whatever can stop the killings, I am ready
for it.”
The governor said he saw the
killings coming and took proactive measures to alert the presidency and
security agencies.
He said: “Yes, I saw it coming.
The bill was signed into law on the 22nd of May 2017 and in June, Miyyeti Allah
Kautal Hore did a press conference and threatened that they will not accept the
law and the law will not be implemented in Benue State. Miyyeti Allah Kautal
Hore.
“This was in the papers, they are
on video, they are also on audio, it was an open thing; it wasn’t anything
hidden. One would have expected that in a normal situation, the security
agencies would have picked them because threatening not to obey the law and
inciting people should an offence under the constitution of Nigeria. And this
was not done.
“But as a law-abiding citizen, I
decided to formally report them to the then Acting President in writing, the
NSA, the Inspector-General of Police, the Directorate of State Service (DSS),
and called for the arrest of the leaders. This never happened. They continued
the threat and I reminded them again.
“Later, the President had come
back. Again, in October, I wrote to the Presidency and all the security
agencies, reminding them of the need to arrest these people. And these people
continued with their threats that they will make it impossible to implement the
law and that they will mobilise their people all over the world to come against
us.”
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