The immediate-past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has said he sacrificed his future political ambition to protect the state against killer herdsmen.
The former governor, who spoke through his media aide, Terver Akase, in a statement in Makurdi, also said some financial benefits meant for the state were denied during his tenure because of his stance against killer herders.
In 2023, Ortom lost both his bids to install a successor and toproceed to the Senate.
He linked his loss to his policies against killer herders.
In his Sunday statement, he refuted the claim by his successor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, that his administrator did not do enough to check killer herdsmen.
According to the statement, Alia had in a certain interview accused Ortom’s administration of complicity in the insecurity that ravaged the state.
Alia was quoted to have said: “So one bad man was in some quarters orchestrating these and was cashing in when people were being buried every day.”
But Ortom, in a statement titled, ‘Those unfortunate statements on insecurity in Benue’, condemned the ‘unfortunate and unfounded’ allegations targeted at him.
“We find the above statements not only unfortunate but disturbing. Raising such weighty allegations without providing any proof to support the claims sends a rather wrong signal to the rest of the country. Benue people are known as very hospitable and peace-loving citizens of Nigeria,” Ortom’s aide, Akase, said.
He said, “It is an incontestable fact that His Excellency Ortom was the first Benue Governor who boldly confronted the monster known as armed herdsmen attacks on Benue people, which predated his administration.
“He (Ortom) was the first Governor to enact a law not only to end open grazing of livestock in all parts of the state but to also introduce ranching as the global best practice of animal husbandry.
“In his eight years as Governor, Chief Ortom never accused Benue youths of being cattle rustlers and killers of their own people.
“Instead, he encouraged youths of the state to aspire to achieve their dreams, and his administration engaged young people who were willing to complement conventional security agencies as members of the state Community Volunteer Guards.
“The Livestock Guards which his administration had earlier established as the enforcement agency of the law on open grazing were also made up of hard-working and patriotic Benue youths who, for six years, did a commendable job.
“It is equally imperative to state that Governor Ortom never requested funds from the Federal Government or anyone else regarding the security situation in his state.
“Instead, he made huge sacrifices and put his political career on the line to ensure that enemies of the state did not succeed in taking over the land that they have always wanted to occupy.
“In the process, he was vilified, victimized and the state government was denied several entitlements including funds from bonds, Stamp Duty, SURE-P, Signature Bonus, among other funds that the state legitimately deserved to benefit.”
Ortom said all the financial interventions denied Benue State during his tenure had been released to the present administration and asked his successor to give an account of how he had expended the funds.
“Their explanation should include what has been done with Benue’s share of the N50bn which President Bola Tinubu graciously released to five northern states affected by insecurity,” he said.