BEVERLY HILLS, April 19, (THEWILL) – Comrade Timothy Hembaor is the President General of Tiv Youth Organisation ( TYO). In this no-holds barred interview with AUSTINE JOR in Makurdi, he speaks on the continued threats by Fulani groups to overrun Benue, insisting that the TYO is now set to take a drastic action with a view to ending the menace.
What’s your reaction to the comments credited to one Salleh Alhassan regarding issues surrounding continued herdsmen attacks In Benue State?
You see, I watched with consternation the suicidal arrogance with which the so-called National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, one Engr. Saleh Alhassan, foisted self-inflicted invitation to pogrom against the Fulani herdsmen militia and their sponsors in Nigeria.
He did the unthinkable in the interview he granted a newspaper reporter when he arrogated to himself the status of someone above the law and deliberately invited the numerous victims of Fulani militia atrocities to take him out, outside the law. Curiously, the refusal of the security agencies to invite the militant Fulani sponsor of mass murder and scorched – earth policy for questioning has confirmed that he has to be dealt with outside the law.
What then is your next line of action?
We have taken this as our onerous responsibility which has become imperative. When Engr. Saleh Alhassan addressed a press conference on Tuesday, 30th May, 2017 threatening to invite Fulani across the world to resist the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition Law 2017, we regrettably, expected the security agencies to stop him – but they didn’t. His organisation in collaboration with other Fulani militia groups mobilised and sponsored the mass murder of hundreds of defenceless people, including old men, women and children in their sleep on New Year Day, 2018.
How would you react to the latest utterances by the group?
Well, With his recent utterances after his sponsored attack on Governor Ortom, we shall never waste any time expecting deliverance or intervention from anyone. We shall take our destiny into our hands. And we want everybody to know this. In doing that, we shall not act alone but mobilise well-known Fulani victims across Nigeria and beyond to assist us to deliver justice at the doorsteps of Engr. Alhassan and other killers of our people. We shall, with fellow victims, hunt Fulani militia and their sponsors to their very source, be it Futa-Jalon, Niger, Chad, Mali or Sudan. We call on Governor Ortom not to waste time and resources on conventional security which has since 2017 refused, failed or neglected to arrest well known Fulani militia sponsors who have openly taken responsibility for the horrendous mass murder, maiming and destruction perpetrated on defenceless people of other nationalities as well as Tiv people in Nigeria. Perhaps, there is need to debunk the barefaced lies which Engr. Alhassan, who has sold his soul to the devil, the father of lies, churned out against Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom in the suicidal interview before proceeding with our other strategies.
What is your take on insinuations that Governor Ortom faked the purported attack on him by suspected Fulani militia recently?
It is laughable because Governor Ortom has nothing to gain by organising a phantom attack. He went out that day in company of security aides who included members of the state security services and the police who send routine regular reports to their various organisations. Besides, the security agencies could find out and controvert him if he raised a false alarm. None of them did that. Rather, the Inspector General of Police received a formal report on the attempted assassination and sent a team to investigate it.
Even before the March 20, 2021 failed attempt, the Governor received security reports since 2017 after he signed the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, that Fulani militia planned to kill him. Consequently, he flew to Abuja several times after the reports indicated that he could be attacked on the way. It could also be recalled that his predecessor, Governor Gabriel Suswam, had also been attacked when he went on an inspection of one of the Fulani militia killing fields in Guma local government area of Benue State in 2013. He could not therefore, ignore such reports.
A new group known as Fulani Nationality Movement has emerged. What Is your understanding of this group?
Well, concerning the roots of the Fulani Nationality Movement, a cursory check on the Google search engine will reveal that it is the mouth piece and militant wing of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other Fulani socio-cultural groups across the world. Their claim of responsibility for the March 20th attack on Governor Ortom was not their debut. They had also met in Kano on 13th January, 2018, less than two weeks after the New Year mass murder, and issued a communiqué claiming responsibility for that massacre. FUNAM again issued a statement on 25th June, 2018, on the Fulani herdsmen mass killings in Plateau State claiming responsibility. It is on record that their outrageous claims that Nigeria belongs exclusively to the Fulani race across the world tallies with the position of all leaders of Fulani socio-cultural groups including those of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore.
On the trail of the mass killings and destruction of lives and property particularly in Nigeria, the World Terrorism Index in its 2015 report ranked Fulani militants as the fourth deadliest after Boko Haram, ISIS and al-Shahab. Would Engr. Saleh Alhassan also credit this ranking to Governor Samuel Ortom? Obviously, no! Just as Governor did not invent this ranking, he does not have any need for a phantom group to pursue the just cause for which he has already been known. He and his aides who believe in answering their fathers’ names do not operate outside the law hence they have no need to hide their identities.
Some persons had argued that the number of victims of the 2018 January attack was exaggerated by the Benue State Government for political reasons. Do you subscribe to this line of thought?
The painful mass burial of 73 victims of Fulani herdsmen militia genocide of New Year Day 2018, the police, Benue State University Teaching Hospital, where the butchered remains were kept, as well as other security agencies have the names and other statistics of the victims. It is a fact that more than 100 persons were killed during the attacks. However, some were too decomposed by the time their bodies were recovered such that they were buried immediately. For the 73, however, the funeral brochure of the event contained a list of all the names of the victims most of whom hail from Guma and Logo local government areas. The brochure even contains pictures of some of the listed victims. By claiming that the 73 caskets buried were empty, Engr. Alhassan has completed the full circle of a sponsor of mass murder and butcher who has also danced on the grave of victims. However, any impartial investigator is welcome to get the list of the victims and some other details as contained in the burial brochure which is an everlasting document in our archives as well as a perpetual memorial against the conquest and occupation agenda which is doomed to fail in these days as it did 200 years ago.
Alhassan’s claim that Governor Ortom comes from a minority ethnic group whose position on issues cannot affect the fortunes of the Fulani is exhibition of confidence in gross ignorance. As far as ranching is concerned, Governor Ortom is with the majority. The National Economic Council, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, the Northern Governors’ Forum, as well as majority of enlightened Nigerians have openly supported ranching. Moreover, ranching has been adjudged as the best global best practice in animal husbandry.
Perhaps, tt it might be necessary to remind Engr. Alhassan and his Fulani militants that Governor Ortom won re-election against the federal might that has provided the canopy for him to be above the law. However, let it be known that he will be tackled outside the law where he operates with impunity.
The attack on Governor Ortom was greeted with wide condemnation. What could have been responsible for this in your opinion?
When Governor Ortom speaks on matters of the rule of law and justice, majority of Nigerians stand with him. The outrage that greeted the attempt to eliminate him testified to this. Only outlaws including Engr. Alhassan and his cohorts can brand him a minority at their own peril. That they have protection from the Presidency at the moment is temporary, the day of reckoning will surely come. At that time, those under whose canopy he hides to wreak havoc and illegalities will be helpless.
Let all be reminded that at their recent National Executive Committee meeting in Makurdi, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, publicly backed Governor Ortom’s call for justice for all groups in Nigeria. But for a bigot and sponsor of mass deaths who has no faith whatsoever in life hereafter, to brand him a minority, is delusion to say the least. Samuel Ortom is a re-elected Governor, a courageous patriot, as well as a distinguished politician, Christian and community with a loud and clear voice at the national and global level.
Critics of Governor Ortom have accused him of not being able to meet up with the challenges Of governance, especially payment of salaries, among others. How would you react to this?
To say that Governor Ortom does not pay salaries and pensions as well as execute development projects is the obsession of a partisan opponent far from the conclusion of the Benue electorate. The false allegations of land grabbing also belong to the class of fabrications of those who fail again and again in tainting his leadership profile. As various Fulani leaders have stated time and again, the crises on all the fertile lands of Nigeria are a struggle for the land and all its other natural resources. It is not about Governor Samuel Ortom. The struggle predates his era. However, in the current dispensation, he remains the voice of his people who elected him as their Governor, first, and that of all other victims of injustice in Nigeria and all patriots.
Your final words to the leadership of the Kautal Hore Group
My final words are that Alhassan should do himself some good to learn from the history of previous war encounters between the Fulani and Tiv people. In this time and dispensation, we have no alternative than to take the battle now to the doorsteps of the invaders and their sponsors. That is what we will do, in collaboration with the multitudes, who are all victims of Fulani butchers all over Nigeria. We are tired of being at the receiving end. We shall not stand by and watch another attack on our elected representative, Governor Samuel Ortom. We shall rather prefer a situation where Fulani leaders will be running for their lives or be the ones lodging reports with the security agencies.
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