Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has blamed his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, for the proliferation of arms in the state, alleging that Suswam believed in violence, and bought arms for youths to achieve his political ambition.
Addressing State House correspondents after a meeting with Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo yesterday, the Governor stressed that his government will go after those who have refused to surrender their weapons since the amnesty window has closed.
According to him, “The amnesty programme succeeded because more than 800 young people came out and surrendered. We have in our possession over 600 assorted weapons and ammunition that we collected from these young men.
“The last dispensation believed in violence. My predecessor and his cohorts believed they could take everything by force and they bought these arms and gave to young men. I am appealing to them to still return those arms.
“Now that the carrot approach of the amnesty programme is over, we will now adopt the stick approach. We are going to pursue them to their homes. Wherever they are, we are going to arrest them and prosecute them. We are going to go after them fully.”
“I cannot in any way surrender my state to criminals. I am going to fight them headlong. I am the governor of Benue State, I was duly elected and I have the backing of my people to fight criminals so that we can have a free society to build our economy,” the Governor declared.
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