Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has declared that he’s ready to die rather than surrender his land to the Fulani ‘who have made over a million homeless in his state’.
Governor Ortom stated this on Tuesday in Markudi, the state capital, while receiving the mission team of the Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors without Borders.
According to him, the Fulani herdsmen have killed, raped and rendered some people of the state homeless, while the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government continues to pay lip service in its fight against insecurity.
The governor vowed never to surrender any land to Fulanis in the state, saying that, “Our people are dying, our women, mothers are being raped, our children can’t go to school, they are suffering.
“These criminals, they display themselves on social media, claiming they are here for an agenda to drive our people away and take over their land and also kill them. And they are here courtesy of Federal Government but for me, if they come, then I’m ready to die than to surrender my land to Fulani men. If God didn’t protect me, then I need no help from anybody.”
“The spate of insecurity has also led to increased internal displacement which is now commonplace in most parts of the nation’s food basket as statistics continue to swell on what seems to be a daily basis with many more communities sacked from their ancestral home by the persistent attacks with no hope in sight for their safe return home,” Ortom added.
This comes a few months after suspected Fulani herdsmen killed at least 36 residents including students of the College of Education in Katsina Ala, Benue State.