Bonta-Ukpute crisis: Ortom should take blame over escalation – Group

A group under the aegis of Association of Igede Media Professionals has stated that Benue state Governor Samuel Ortom and his aides from Konshisha axis should be held responsible for the escalation of the Bonta-Ukpute conflict that has claimed lives and property worth hundreds of millions of naira.

The group in a press statement, Wednesday, justified its assertion on the argument that if the Ortom had not been egged on by his aides to ignore its earlier patriotic suggestions to handle the crisis decisively, the enormity of loss of lives and property would have been minimised, perhaps, completely averted.

“Since last year when the crisis erupted, we have been mounting pressure on Governor Samuel Ortom to resolve the issues at the centre of the dispute; namely, boundary demarcation, with a view to putting an enduring end to the frequent clashes over land dispute by the Bonta and Ukpute communities (of Konshisha and Oju local government areas respectively).

“Only about a fortnight ago, while empathising with him over an alleged assassination attempt on his life, we reminded the governor to spare a thought for the people of the two communities who had been facing untold hardships due to the lingering communal war.

“Unfortunately, our suggestions have fallen on deaf ears, or at best had attracted name-calling by the governor’s aide who preferred to see us as a faceless group”, the association said in the statement.

Signed by its President, Egena Ode, the statement stated further that, “For not caring enough about the lives of our people who have been slaughtered in their hundreds, their houses burnt down and farm produce destroyed, especially following the renewed attacks that have continued unabated in the past six weeks, we are calling on all appointees of Igede extraction in Governor Ortom’s cabinet to pull out with immediate effect”.

On media reports of soldiers allegedly abducted or shot at by “Bonta Boys”, a militia group on Monday while on routine patrol in the area as part of overall peace keeping in the region, the group said “We face an existential threat whose enormity has now been brought to the fore by the treatment given to the soldiers on patrol along the Ukpute-Bonta road.

“This has simply revealed the fire we have been facing as a people over time”, as it commended the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Attahiru Ibrahim and Commander of Operation Whirl Stroke (OPWS) for “the uncommon discipline, professionalism, sacrifice, and dispassionateness exhibited by the soldiers on peaceful patrol, even in the face of grievous provocation and threat to their lives by the militia”.

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