Benue State's governor, Samuel Ortom, has claimed that his life is in danger. He claims that well-known Fulanis and the late Lamido Sanusi, the former Emir of Kano, are attempting to hire an unidentified organisation to murder him.
This was said by Ortom on Thursday during a global press conference he hosted at the Benue Government House in Makurdi. He was reacting to a "write-up" accusing him of being behind the recent bombing that left some pastoralists dead in Akwanaja, Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa. It was signed by 52 people of Fulani heritage, led by the ousted Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi.
The governor claimed that the unnamed gang attempted to pin the killings on the Benue State Livestock Guards by alleging that the pastoralists were bombed as they travelled from Benue to Nasarawa after receiving their cattle back. This was a last-ditch effort to make people despise, despise, and attack him.
“The group maliciously accused me of carrying out genocide against pastoralists. The dethroned Emir Sanusi did not stop at that. He made a video in Hausa in which he maligned me and called on all Fulanis to consider me as their enemy while urging those in Benue State to vote against me during the coming elections.”
Ortom said, “I consider these allegations and blackmail targeted at my person and the Government of Benue State as part of a grand conspiracy by enemies of the state to eliminate me.
“I consider the statement by the nameless group led by Lamido Sanusi as a mockery of thousands of Benue people killed by Fulani herdsmen.
“The group has chosen to spit on the graves of our people in a manner that smacks of impunity and lack of humanity.”
According to him, Lamido Sanusi should be arrested for plotting his death and other attacks on the people of Benue State, and he plans to write to the President about it as soon as he gets home from the conference.
Ortom said that on March 20, 2021, he was attacked by herders at Tyo-Mu on Makurdi-Gboko Road. He also said that he has survived seven attempts to kill him since passing the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law in 2017.
“After the attempt on my life, a group named Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) issued a press statement taking responsibility for the assassination attempt. They said I escaped because of a technical error but that I wouldn’t be lucky another time. They vowed to get me at all costs.
“The recent utterances of some personalities such as Lamido Sanusi have revealed the true identities of those behind the sinister agenda to eliminate me. But my life is in the hands of God and only He can permit anything evil to come my way,” he said.
Ortom said he is using the conference to get Nigerians and the rest of the world’s attention on the fact that his life is in danger.
People who wrote to the President saying they wanted what was best for Nigeria were told by the governor to stop playing politics with security issues.
“The individuals and groups pushing for repealing the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law ought to know they are wasting their time. Anyone who wants to rear animals in Benue State should be prepared to do so in ranches and according to provisions of the law. The law has come to stay.
“We will not be distracted by the avalanche of smear and hate campaigns against us. I have the mandate of my people and with the last pint of my blood, I will protect their interests till the day I leave office as governor,” he said.