Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The Benue State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described as blatantly false, mischievous and completely unfounded the claim by the new Benue State Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Solomon Iorpev, that the administration of former Governor Samuel Ortom granted the Federal Government the liberty to establish ranches in certain parts of Benue State on October 16, 2017.
The Benue’s major opposition party made its position known in a press statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Comr. Dan Nyikwagh.
The party stated that the allegation, made during the Commissioner’s maiden press briefing on Friday, August 21, 2026, is not only false, stressing that it is a desperate attempt to rewrite the history of a matter that is well documented and known to the people of Benue State.
The statement reads: ‘If the Commissioner is certain of his claim, we challenge him to produce the document supporting this claim. Where is the alleged grant. Was it a Bill, an Executive Council resolution, an official government correspondence, a gazette, a land allocation instrument or simply something discovered in the imagination of those currently searching for a convenient history for political survival?
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Benue State Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law, 2017 was signed into law by Governor Samuel Ortom on May 22, 2017, following extensive consultations with stakeholders. The law provided a six-month transition period and was to take effect in November 2017.
“Therefore, as at October 2017, the law was already in existence. There was no provision in that law granting the Federal Government any portion of Benue land for the establishment of ranches.
“Indeed, the idea that Governor Ortom would, on October 16, 2017, secretly grant land to the Federal Government for ranching while the state was implementing legislation specifically designed to prohibit open grazing and regulate ranch establishment is so fundamentally contradictory that it requires more than a press briefing to make it believable.
“Perhaps the Commissioner should be forgiven for his unfamiliarity with the events of October 2017 because at the time, he was reportedly occupied with the delicate task of balancing his official responsibilities at a media house with his private hustle as an event Master of Ceremonies. It is entirely possible that while Benue was debating, legislating and confronting the difficult realities surrounding open grazing, Chief Iorpev was somewhere ensuring that the microphones at a wedding or birthday ceremony were properly handed to the next speaker.
“That may explain why events that were unfolding publicly across the state in 2017 appear to have escaped his attention. But what may be forgiven as a failure to follow events at the time cannot now be converted into an excuse to invent them.
“More disturbing, however, is the manner in which this fabrication has emerged at the Commissioner’s maiden press briefing. It gives the impression that Chief Iorpev has mistaken the office of Commissioner for Information for a modern-day version of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda, attempting to borrow from the notorious playbook of Joseph Goebbels, where political falsehoods were repeatedly presented as facts”
The party however advised the Commissioner to remember that Benue is not a theatre for propaganda experiments, and its history is not raw material for political fiction.
“History was not kind to Goebbels and his propaganda machine, and Benue’s history will equally not be kind to those who attempt to rewrite it for temporary political convenience” it added.
“The Benue PDP also finds it instructive that this particular historical fiction has suddenly surfaced at a time when the present administration appears more interested in revisiting the past than accounting for its own stewardship of the state.
“Benue people remember what happened. They remember the struggle against open grazing. They remember the law. They remember the sacrifices made to defend their land and livelihoods. And they certainly remember that Governor Ortom did not hand over Benue land to the Federal Government for ranches” it said further.
While saying that the attempt to create a convenient historical narrative by attaching Governor Ortom’s name to a fictitious land grant will therefore fail, the party advised the Commissioner to produce the document or withdraw the allegation. “There is no third option for a government that claims to be guided by facts” it noted..
According to the statement, the Benue State PDP will not allow the history of our state to be rewritten through politically convenient falsehoods. “Those who seek to defend their present record by manufacturing allegations against a previous administration should first remember that the archives are less politically flexible than press conferences”