Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom has disclosed that since 2017 when the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law was enacted, he has escaped seven assassination attempts on his life.
This is even as Governor Ortom, during a press conference, debunked the insinuations that he has a hand in Akwanaja bombing saying, “Benue State government under my leadership has no hand in the Akwanaja incident.
“Linking me with the bomb attack in Doma, Nasarawa State is the most unfair thing anyone would do to me.”
The governor, who was reacting to a letter written to the president by a group of persons led by the deposed emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi accusing him of being the brain behind the recent killing at Akwanaja, Doma local government area of Nasarawa State via a bomb describing the move as a desperate attempt to set him up for hatred, vilification and attacks.
He said, “My attention has been drawn to a write-up signed by 52 personalities of Fulani extraction led by the deposed Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi in form of a letter to Mr president in which the group leveled all manner of accusations against me in a desperate attempt to set me up.
“With the recent utterances of some personalities such as Lamido Sanusi, it has further revealed the true identities of those behind the sinister agenda to eliminate me.”
“The state came under attack nearly 50 times before the anti grazing law was enacted. My predecessor, Senator Gabriel Suswam was nearly killed by Fulani herdsmen in 2014 at Uikpan on his way to Torkula village in Guma local government area to see the damage caused by herdsmen in the community.
“When I came in as the governor in 2015, my people who are predominantly farmers requested for a policy that would not only end hostilities and attacks on them by nomadic herdsmen, but would also allow both parties to peacefully coexist.
“Our people have suffered the organized genocide masked in terrorism, not because they do not know their attackers. Benue people know those who are visiting them with unprovoked violence and killings, but as law-abiding citizens of Nigeria, we have chosen to sustain our belief in the conventional security agencies of this country. Now, the enemy has turned round to accuse our people of being the aggressors.”
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