President Buhari has strongly condemned the assassination attempt on Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, saying the string of brutal attacks on individuals and communities in the state, with the latest one targeting the governor, was unacceptable.
The President had said this in a statement released on Monday 22nd March 2021, where he also welcomed the dispatch of a high-level team of crack investigators to the state from the Police Headquarters in Abuja, urging the officers to uncover who, or whatsoever, was behind the assassination attempt on the Governor and bring them to justice.
The statement by the President is coming a few days after the Benue State Governor had alleged that gunmen suspected to be herders attacked him on his farm near Tyo-mu, along Makurdi-Gboko Highway on Saturday afternoon.
He narrated his experience during a press briefing at the Benue Peoples House in Makurdi, the state capital, shortly after the attack.
According to Mr Ortom, he was inspecting the farm when the herders, who were dressed in black outfits, ambushed him and his security personnel.
“You know today is Saturday and is normal as a farmer, I usually go to my farm, so I went to my farm along Gboko road. And on our way back, we started hearing some gunshots and we discovered people who were dressed in black, and from experience, we now discovered that these are Fulani militias and I do not want to take things for granted because few days ago, the media were awash with statement from MACBAN who met in Yola, the same place they met in 2016 where they decided that they will take Nigeria and that every other person is a slave; that was when they started infiltrating the entire country.”
He also said his lawyer will write a petition against the leadership of MACBAN.
“They came out to target me and behind the scene they are planning to eliminate me on my own land. If I can’t go to the farm as governor, with the entire security around me, then who else can go to farm? You can imagine the pains that we have here in Benue State.
“I appreciate the security personnel attached to me; they were able to repel them and they could not have access to me,” Mr Ortom stated.
The governor, who has been a vocal critic of open grazing of cattle impounded over 200 cows for violating the anti-grazing law the state passed in 2018.