Middle Belt Organization Lampoons FG Over Ortom, Southern Kaduna, Plateau Killings

The Core Middle Belt Value, an umbrella body for all the ethnic nationalities in the Middle Belt has reacted to the statement credited to Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu, that Governor Ortom is fuelling genocide against the Fulanis in Benue, while saying that the Governor has denied Fulanis their rights in Benue State.

In a statement released to the press on Monday, 6 September 2021, after carefully going through the contents of the statement issued by the Presidency, the Core Middle Belt Values as the representatives of over 40 million Nigerians spread all over the 19 states across the Lugardian North has come to the conclusion that there is a threat contained in that statement .

“It is obvious that the Presidency is bent on formenting crisis in Benue State and using it as a pretext to remove Governor Ortom in order to pave way for implementation of the grazing reserves and routes in Benue .

“It is with this belief that we are telling the Presidency that nothing must happen to Governor Ortom.

“As far as the constitution is concerned, the Land Use Act has bestowed on the Governor the right to appropriately keep lands on behalf of the people of Benue state. So far Ortom is doing that .

“The Core Middle Values hereby warns that, it is ready to mobilize its members at anytime in support of Governor Samuel Ortom and it is warning that nothing unconstitutional should happen to Governor Ortom,” the statement said.

The statement which was jointly signed by Christiana Oyine Omar, the National Chairman and Okpani Odeh Akatu Odeh, National Publicity Secretary, urged the Federal Government to co-operate with Ortom and other governors in the Federation in order to have a seamless transfer from nomadic herding to modern system of ranching.

The statement further lampooned the Federal Government for the volatile situation in the Plateau and wondered why President Muhammadu Buhari did not take action on time till 23 travelers were brutally murdered .

Adding: “It is saddening to note that people on the Plateau have been complaining about the dastardly killings by the so-called bandits without any action taken to arrest the bandits or stop the killings. However, when some irresponsible hoodlums wrongly murdered some Fulani Muslim traveling through the area where people were massacred on the day the people were burying their dead, Irigwe youths and elders became the target of arrests by Government agencies .We are asking why did they not arrest the bandits to stop or forestall the killings?”

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The group further charged the Federal Government to move in and save Southern Kaduna Indigenes from herdsmen attacks .

“Similarly, the Core Middle Value is reminding the Federal Government that there is an ongoing situation in Southern Kaduna where the natives are routinely murdered by bandits whose ethnicity is known. Yet, the killers are not apprehended for reasons we don’t know.

“If the situation continues we shall seek justice from the International Criminal Court at the Hague,” it added.