By Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi
Benue’s insecurity would have become a thing of the past if the immediate past governor of the state, Chief Samuel Ortom, PhD was fully backed by all and sundry when he was shouting and exposing plans to occupy Benue’s lands by Fulani herdsmen.
On assumption of duties as governor in 2015, apart from the huge debts, loads of workers salaries and arrears left behind for him by his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, the former governor of Benue state also met a critical state of insecurity.
While Fulani herdsmen were killing here and there, armed militia too were at it just to make the state ungovernable for him.
Sending that the killings wouldn’t stop immediately, Chief Samuel Ortom, PhD started with his popular Amnesty Programme. The “Carrot Approach” assisted the government a lot to tackle insecurity as top and known cultists, militia and attackers surrendered their weapons willingly. Little did Samuel Ortom know that the Amnesty Programme would soon be hijacked by politicians for their own selfish interest.
While battling to sort the huge debts which his predecessor left behind for him, Chief Ortom was also facing security challenges created by Fulani herdsmen. It was a serious herdsmen/farmers clashes in almost all the parts of Benue state.
While the killings persisted, the then governor consulted widely, and the idea of Anti Open Grazing Law came. Several efforts were made to stop the Law from being signed on the day which was set aside for the ceremony but Ortom went ahead and did what he considered as the will of the people he was governing.
AND HIS TROUBLES STARTED: Not pleased with the Anti Open Grazing Law, the federal government headed by Muhammadu Buhari came against Chief Samuel Ortom. He was attacked by Fulani herders. He was lied against. Several fictitious petitions were sent to the EFCC and ICPC against him, his wife and some members of his administration by those that the Buhari-led administration had commissioned to pull him (Ortom) down.
Apart from the above, all the loans which his administration applied for were blocked. He tried severally to brief Buhari about the killings in the state and what could be done to stop them but he was prevented from seeing the former president. Imagine, a State Governor was prevented from seeing his president!
At a point when the killings were becoming too much to bear, Chief Samuel Ortom cried out and instead of Buhari and some Benue politicians to rally round him, they were deceiving the public that it was the people of Tiv that were killing themselves. They, at a point lied that it was Benue farmers that were attacking the Fulani herdsmen.
Chief Ortom was pained because he then saw what is happening in the state today coming. As a man of God, he knew that the security situation of the state would get worse so he made it a duty to protect the state. He defended the Benue Valley from the people that wanted to hijack Benue lands. He said that he was ready to give his life for Benue to be free from Fulani killings.
Because he was exposing the plots by the federal government to help the herders to hijack Benue lands, Chief Ortom was frustrated out of the APC in 2018. He rejoined the PDP, and despite all the propaganda against him, he was reelected for a second term by the people of the state because they appreciated his efforts to give them good governance and to also protect them at his own expense.
Now that the killings have continued to take place even after Chief Samuel Ortom had left office as governor, won’t it be fair for the people of the state to appreciate his efforts to secure the state while he held away as governor?
To be continued
I am Aare Abiodun Oluwarotimi, De Oracular Oracle that eats jollof rice in the oven