Benue: Miyetti Allah Speaks On Herdsmen Attacking Ortom

TrackNews Online had reported that Ortom confirmed that he almost lost his life during an attack on Saturday by some gunmen he described as herdsmen.

The Governor who spoke with newsmen after the incident, narrated that the gunmen, numbering about 15, trailed him and his team to a riverbank when he was on foot before launching the attack.

Ortom’s convoy was attacked along Makurdi/Gboko road in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue but his security team repelled the attack and whisked the Governor to safety.

The Benue Governor blamed the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and called for their arrest.

Speaking to DailyTrust, the National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, said Ortom was lying.

He accused the Benue governor of keeping malice against the group because they sued him over the controversial anti-grazing law he enacted in Benue.

Bodejo said: “There was nothing secret about the conference we held in Yola. We called for unity and sensitised Fulani on the need for peaceful coexistence with other people. Ortom lied, we don’t know anything about the said attack.

“Ortom hates Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore ever since we took him to court. We are still in court with him. If he claims we said something in Yola; yes, we called on him to review the law because Fulani are losing their cattle.

“Journalists (in Yola) asked me about the Benue anti-grazing law; I explained that the law was discriminatory. The Fulani are being fined unjustly. We advised him to review the law because the Fulani are forced to sell their cows to pay fine.”

Also reacting, the Benue State Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Risku Mohammed, claimed that the alleged attack on the governor was not carried out by Fulani herdsmen.

Mohammed said he travelled to Nasarawa State and was not aware of the attack on the governor.

“But, if the governor was attacked when he went to his farm, the Fulani couldn’t have been responsible. They didn’t know he was going to farm so how could they have attacked him? It’s not the Fulani,” the MACBAN chairman stated.