Nigerian Concord Newspaper
If there is any politician that is most criticized in Benue state, that person is Chief Samuel Ortom PhD, the immediate past governor of the state. And that is because of his clear stand on issues that affect his state and Nigeria as a whole.
Ortom had faced and is still facing criticisms from his persecutors as a result of his genuine stand on all issues. Ortom that I have known will never mince words when it comes to saying the truth on topical issues. No wonder he was almost assassinated by some Fulani herdsmen that waylaid him on his farm in Guma a year to the end of his second term as governor of Benue state.
That Chief Ortom is being criticized or being lied against today is not that he has sinned against anyone but his persecutors aren’t just comfortable with his clear stand on all issues that affect Benue and Nigeria as a whole.
When the issue of insecurity became very critical in Benue state under Chief Ortom as governor, the former governor firstly introduced the carrot approach, the Amnesty. The Amnesty yielded good results because most of the militants including their leader, late Terwase Akwaza aka Gana surrended their weapons.
As peace was returning to Benue state as a result of the Amnesty, Ortom’s enemies struck. They polluted the process and insecurity returned in double. This time, it wasn’t just the armed militia but fulani herdsmen.
With the activities of Fulani herdsmen in Benue state, hundreds of innocent people and farmers were being killed daily. Muhammadu Buhari who was the president at that time too didn’t help matters. He was backing the Fulani marauders against the good people of Benue state. All this Chief Ortom stood against and that marked the start of his problem with the government at the center.
Ortom fought the Fulani herdsmen to standstill. He made sure that they didn’t occupy the Benue land hence he is being called the Defender of the Benue Valley. At a point , the federal government under Muhammadu Buhari tried to introduced Ruga and grazing route. It was Ortom that God used to safe Nigeria. He alerted the general public and the process was halted.
The Ruga and Grazing Route was to allow the Fulani herdsmen a total domination over farmers lands in Nigeria but Ortom stoped it. It’s part of his many sins.
Earlier, Chief Samuel Ortom enforced the anti grazing law in Benue state and this at the initial stage reduced killings of innocent people by Fulani herdsmen. The federal government under Buhari did all to kill the law because it wasn’t favourable to his men, the Fulani marauders.
Chief Ortom was persecuted, he was attacked, he was blackmailed, his administration was denied several rights like loans, federal government patronage and so on just because he stood up to President Buhari on the issue of insecurity. He was denied access to the former president several times. At a point, they attacked him in his farm in Guma. It was God and the gallantry of his security aides that saved him that day, and till now, no one has said anything about it. What a country we live in
It was the Anti Open Grazing Law which the Buhari-led administration condemned that some state governor’s have now embraced as a mean to stop Fulani herdsmen from dominating their lands. Kudos to Chief Ortom even though his efforts are now being seen as his many sins.
Fast forward to the 2023 general elections. Chief Ortom as a sitting governor deserved every right to ask Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to sympathize and empathize with his people that were being killed daily in their hundreds. This he asked from Atiku, a high chieftaincy title holder in the Tiv land but the former vice president turned it to a big sin.
Ortom said his administration wouldn’t back Atiku for profiling his people and saying that they were the ones attacking Fulani herdsmen. For God sake, no sitting governor would want to accept someone like that. If we clapped for Ortom for standing up to Buhari, why didn’t we clap for him for standing up to Atiku over the same security issue?
Apart from the issue of insecurity, Chief Ortom said the Peoples Democratic Party erred by not allowing power to rotate to the South since Buhari has had eight years for the North. Is calling for equity and fairness a sin in the neck of Chief Samuel Ortom? Too bad.
Coming to the crisis in the Benue state chapter of People’s Democratic Party, I think there is more to what the public was made to understand. Ortom clearly said it at the beginning that Dr. Gabriel Suswam was his adopted candidate to compete the tenure of Ayu as the party’s national chairman. What now went wrong?
The public should blame the handlers of Senator Gabriel Suswam who appears as the best hand for the PDP’s top job. They are the ones accusing Chief Ortom wrongly for reasons best known to them. They made it clear that Suswam no longer has trust in his own friend, Ortom. Too bad.
I remember that I told them severally that the seed of discord they were about to plant would backfire and affect Senator Gabriel Suswam’s ambition but they didn’t listen. Has the seed of discord not brought Utaan out as a contender for the party’s top job?
To be continued.
I am Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi, De Oracular Oracle that eats jollof rice in the shrine