Herdsmen planning to kidnap, kill me – Ortom

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue yesterday alleged that intelligence report before him indicates that herdsmen were planning to kidnap and kill him on Makurdi-Lafia road.
Ortom, who was speaking on Friday at an interactive session with the church, traditional institution and other stakeholders towards peaceful elections in 2019, organised by the Makurdi Catholic Diocese at the Pastoral Centre, Makurdi, noted that he had reported the matter to the Police and all other security agencies of the issues.
Ortom, who spoke in Tiv dialect, said the intelligence report indicated that the Fulani herdsmen who are currently occupying part of Guma local government area of the state were the ones planning the alleged attack on him.
He said based on the report all his security details would be killed after which the herdsmen would have access to him to execute their plan.
“The armed herdsmen, according to the intelligence report, would ensure that all my security aides were killed after which they would Kidnap me, torture me before killing me.
“Already, l had reported the matter to the police and other security agencies and they are aware of this.
“Anytime l sleep and wake up and my spirit doesn’t allow me to travel by road, I would call flight operators, but just a few days ago, the federal government has issued a secular directing that, no flight should land in Makurdi airport again,” said.
The governor, who also alleged that some Benue indigenes were conniving with other forces in Abuja to kill him, stressed the need for the federal government to “urgently bring to an end, the killings across the country by herdsmen militia to pave the way for peaceful elections in 2019.” Ortom also disclosed that most of the polling units in the crisis-affected areas had been destroyed and taken over by the Fulani herdsmen as their grazing fields.
He said the killings across the country were “deliberate attempts by some people either Boko Haram, armed bandits or herdsmen working for the same purpose to disenfranchise large proportion of Nigerians from voting for the leaders of their choice in the 2019 elections.” He further disclosed that pockets of killings were still going on in Makurdi, Guma, Logo and Katsina Ala local government areas of the state.
“Most of the farmlands along the borderlines of Taraba and Nasarawa states have been taken over by herdsmen militia who currently occupy the areas to the detriment of the indigenes.
“We are being pushed to the wall there is a saying that even though, a goat does not bite, when you continuously provoke it, it will bite you.