April 13, 2022

Following the attacks on two communities in Benue State that had at  least 23 locals killed, Governor Samuel Ortom has called on community members to forthwith defend themselves.

The attacks which occurred on Monday night at Mbadwem and Tiortyu communities in Guma and Tiortyu Local Government Areas respectively, according to a statement by Nathaniel Ikyur, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Samuel Ortom is believed to have been carried out by herders.

The Governor Ortom condemned the killings said, “It is becoming increasingly glaring every day that my people are now an endangered species and so we can no longer wait for help from anywhere,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.

“My people will have to rise up to the occasion to defend themselves and their heritage against the Fulani army of occupation.”

The governor’s aide also said scores of others were injured and have been taken to a hospital in the state for treatment.

“We are law-abiding citizens; we have cried for help against these invaders, but nothing is forthcoming,” Governor Ortom lamented. “We are left alone, and it looks like it is a deliberate strategy.

“Now we have only one option; to defend ourselves or get extinct. This is a case for our survival. We have been accommodating of other people in our land, but our hospitality is misconstrued as weakness. We are not a conquered people. We will never be. We are free-born citizens of Nigeria.”

The governor, however, called on the security agencies to do more in crime prevention and protect the lives and properties of the people in the state.

He however urged the residents to cooperate with security agencies to flush out the undesirable elements in the society.