Nigerian Concord Newspaper
Facts have emerged on how the immediate past governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom, PhD bluntly rejected a N75 Billion bribe he was offered by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to sell the lives of Benue people.
Recall that a former Minister for Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN had at his 63rd Birthday Thanksgiving Mass which was held in Makurdi yesterday said that he was fully aware of the plot to bribe Chief Samuel with N75 Billion to abandon the law which he implemented to protect the lives and properties of Benue people.
His words: “I must commend the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom, for rejecting 75 billion naira to back down on the Benue Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law and to sell Benue. I was a witness to this, and I must confess that it is rare for any man to turn down such an offer. It is a demonstration of his love for his people.”
According to findings by this newspaper, the plot to bribe Ortom began immediately the former governor implemented the Anti Open Grazing Law which the then President, Muhammadu Buhari saw as a way to prevent his Fulani brothers (the herders) from grazing openly on Benue lands and farms.
A Presidency source confirmed that the Buhari administration truly offered Chief Samuel Ortom a sum of N40 Billion to clear the salary arrears which he met when he assumed duties as governor in 2015. He was also offered another N35 billion to do some projects but with a condition that he would abandon the Anti Open Grazing Law and allow Fulani herders to graze openly and freely at the expense of the people of the State.
“Chief Ortom outrightly rejected the mouth-watering offer, noting that he was not elected to rule over dead people. He said that he would not allow anything that will put the lives of his people in danger because of the N75 Billion” a source added.
According to the source, it was at that junction that the Aso Villa cabals vowed to make the state ungovernable for him by withholding some statutory rights belonging to the state. “Part of it was the resistant he met each time he went to the Villa to meet Buhari over the insecurity in his state” the source noted.
The source added that Ortom’s refusal to take the N75 Billion bribe from the Buhari-led administration assisted in reducing the killings of innocent people by the fulani herders drastically.