The news of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu dispatching crack detectives to Benue State is a healthy development and a move that suggests that the Federal Government is not treating the callous attack on the number one citizen of Benue State with kid gloves.
The attack on the Governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom on Saturday, 20th March, 2021 is comdemnable, unacceptable and a pathological hatred pushed too far against a leader who is unwavering in protecting the interest of his people that gave him the mandate to govern them.
Mr. Abba Kyari, a super cop would have his name and his team written on marble, if the perpetrators are arrested. We believe that the Inspector-General of Police, has implicit confidence in him and his team to fish out those criminals in the forest and by and large, the Special Investigation Task Force headed by DCP Abba Kyari to investigate the reported attack and attempted murder of the Governor, should not let him and Nigerians down.
It’s in the public domain, why Governor Ortom is being hunted. That he assented to ‘anti-Open Grazing Law’, during his first tenure as governor, a law that was passed by Benue State House of Assembly was the offence he committed. It remains to be seen in saner climes, where the State legislature legislated on laws that suit the people, became an issue. For years, Ortom has been unnecessarily vilified because of anti-open grazing law. The law by intent and content pose no inhibition to cattle rearing in Benue State, but should be done in a regulated manner to protect the interest of farmers and even the cattle rearers.
Come to think of killings of innocent Benue citizens by suspected gun wielding Fulani herdsmen who felt offended by the anti-open grazing law. There’s been no local government in Benue that hasn’t witnessed Fulani herders’ attack on the vulnerable people and to say, killing which is going on in the State is not ‘genocide’ is an under statement.
For years and months, Benue people have cried against arsonists, but, intervention was not coming from the Federal government, except the State governor’s establishment of Forest guards who are not allowed to bear arms.
Attacks on Benue people by killer herdsmen took a dangerous dimension, in a manner that the leadership of the Fulani Socio-cultural group, ‘Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association’, would at every opportunity threatened attacks on Benue and its people. It wasn’t many days apart, when the National Chairman of the Fulani Socio-cultural group at a meeting in Yola, Adamawa State capital threatened attacks against Dr. Samuel Ortom on a national television that the suspected Fulani herders had attacked the convoy of the governor around Tyo-Mu settlement, located on Kilometer 12 along Makurdi-Gboko Federal highway.
It’s recalled that hours after the attack, a shadowy group who identified themselves as ‘Fulani Nationality Movement’, claimed responsibility and gave reasons they wanted Ortom dead.
Before now, this group hasn’t been popular, but could be the militia wing of MACBAN, a challenge before IGP crack team to unravel.
