Close borders on foreign killer herders, Ortom tells FG

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state Monday called on the federal government to close borders and monitor foreign herdsmen who come to cause trouble in the country.

Ortom, who said this when he was at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Makurdi to visit Mrs. Grace Zeku whose hand was cut off by herdsmen while on farm in Guma, noted that it was only in Nigeria that foreigners are allowed to come and terrorise the citizens.

He stated that there was need for the country to take statistics of all foreign herdsmen coming into the country.

Ortom noted that ranching remained the best way to check activities of herdsmen militia, and mercenaries who come to commit atrocities against the citizens.

“The only way we can separate good herdsmen from bad ones is when they  keep their animals in ranches.

“If what has happened to this woman was done in a ranch, we could have known how we could trace the person and arrest him.

“But right now, you can’t find these people and if you ask, they will say they are from Niger or Mali.

“I want to advise the federal government to close borders against these herdsmen that are foreigners.  Why should Fulani herdsmen from Niger, Mali and Chad come to Nigeria and take over the  place, commit atrocities and go back to their country? No country in the world will accept this kind of thing.

“If this woman had died in that jungle, nobody will be talking about it today,” he said.

Ortom further said though Benue has become relatively peaceful compared to 2018, there were still isolated cases of violent attacks by herdsmen in some communities.

According to him, Benue is not against any ethnic group but people who want to keep animals should come and apply to get permit to do ranching so that if anything goes wrong they will be held responsible.

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