The Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, on Wednesday said that he had received messages from Fulani threatening him over the anti-open grazing law recently enacted in the state.
The Governor was speaking when he addressed members of National Council of Tiv Youths who protested to government house over what they described as “outburst and unguided utterances against Tiv nation and the Indigenes of Benue state by leaders of Fulani cattle rearers.”
Ortom said he would not be intimidated by the threat coming from the Fulani, stressing that the law has come to stay and that the full implementation of the law would commence latest November 2017.
He said that the enactment of the law was necessitated by incessant attacks on farmers in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen, adding that he has the constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property of residents of his state.
According to him, “just this morning [Wednesday] one Fulani called my wife and asked her to warn me that I [Ortom] am joking with them [Fulani], but my response when my wife told me this, is that am not joking, this law has come to stay.
“I challenge anyone who has superior solution to the senseless killings of our people other than anti-open grazing law should bring it forward, before the passage of the bill by House of Assembly, due process was followed, every nationality living in the state; the Igbos, Yorubas, Hausas/Fulanis and others were invited to the public hearing.”
“Whoever chooses to live in Benue must obey the law of the land, there is no grazing in Benue, I was elected to protect lives and property of every resident of the state, not to preside over dead people.”
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