BEVERLY HILLS, January 11, (THEWILL) – Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has again rejected the suggestion that the state create Cattle Colony or Grazing Routes for herdsmen saying it is not acceptable to the Benue people.
Ortom stated this on Thursday in Makurdi in a service to mark the mass burial of the victims of the herdsmen invasion declaring that since the state did not have adequate land for farmers, there is no space to give herdsmen for grazing.
Defending his action, Ortom insisted on ranching, saying “it is the best way to go and it is in conformity with global best practices.”
He declared that herdsmen have failed woefully if the recent killings were meant to intimidate his administration into repealing the anti-grazing law.
The law, among other things, prohibits the movement of livestock on foot within the state.
He also blamed the killings of Benue indigenes on the silence of the Federal Government and others responsible for the security of lives and property.
Ortom lamented that if the Federal Government had acted on the reports he gave it concerning the threats of attacks by the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the killings would have been averted.
He urged the Federal Government to arrest the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore because they had severally made incisive statements against the state.
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