…orders Fulani herdsmen out of Benue
Death toll in the attacks on Agwabi Village in Biney Council Ward of
Buruku Local Government Area of the Benue State by terrorist Fulani
herdsmen presently stands at 60, according to villagers.
This is coming a few months after over 400 people were killed in Agatu
Local Government Council of the State. Agatu is still occupied by Fulani
herdsmen, who have now inhabited the sacked villages without any response
from President Mohammadu Buhari.
Pained by the mass murders of his people by Fulani herdsmen, Governor
Samuel Ortom has described the killings as “genocide” and ordered the
cattle rearers out of the state saying the state was under siege.
“It is a bad situation now, everyday you hear my people are being killed,
raped by these mercenaries, they do not have respect for rule of law
neither for security personnel.
“These are wicked mercenaries under the guise of herdsmen attacking us and
taking over our farmland. I have said it several times that we do not have
land for grazing in the state, let them move out of the state.
“There is a limit to which I can appeal to my people to restrain, from
reprisal attack, if all of them are killed, then I will be the next
target. The problem is that if you push them away from one point, they
move to another point and their style is to kill, destroy farmland and
take over the land,” he lamented.
Reacting to allegations that youths of the town were rustling cattle, he
demanded the proof of cattle rustling and wondered whether cattle now
equates a human life.
“It is the criminal elements among them that always go and steal their
cows. For instance, in my village, they claimed that my people rustled
their cows and they went ahead to kill 50 of my people and took over the
land, this is genocide”, the governor cried out.
He also indicted security agencies whom he accused of not arresting the
culprits even when they remain where they had operated noting that “in
Buruku, there were military men and mobile policemen stationed there.”