Threats, falsehood won’t stop anti-open grazing law – Ortom

By Daniel Agbo

Makurdi

Benue state governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has said that constant threats and false alarm by the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore would not deter him from implementing the anti-open grazing law.
Ortom, who was reacting to a statement credited to the leadership of Miyetti Allah that 10,000 herdsmen had been displaced, with 600 cattle dead since the implementation of the law November 1, said the group had in the last couple of months been beating drums for war and threatening to mobilise their members to attack the people of the state.
The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, noted that the allegation by the Miyetti Allah was contradictory, “because two weeks ago the same group had said Fulani pastoralists decided to voluntarily leave Benue state” since they were not ready to accept the law.
“Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has in the last couple of months been drumming for war and threatening to mobilise their members to attack the people of Benue state.
“The group’s alarm that a Fulani cattle owner in Benue recently jumped into River Benue is another ridiculous fabrication aimed at creating an atmosphere of apprehension in the state,” he said via the statement.
According to him, the Miyetti Allah group has openly assumed responsibility as the umbrella body shielding the killer herdsmen now, and it is pertinent that they are arrested and made to account for the blood of the innocent persons killed in the state.
The governor said the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law had come to stay and its implementation was ongoing without hitches.
“The law is here to protect both farmers and herdsmen and it is not enacted to witch-hunt any group of persons or individuals.”
He urged livestock owners to obey provisions of the law to enable them to establish ranches for rearing of their animals, adding that it was the best way to end frequent invasion of Benue communities and killing of innocent people.

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