Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has disclosed that he no longer sleeps at night due the increased killings of farmers and destruction of properties in some communities in the state by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
The governor, who stated this recently in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, said, alongside the huge number of deaths that has been recorded as a result of the crisis, more than 170,000 people are currently displaced and are being camped in eight different Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) sites.
Governor Ortom said the condition of large number of people turned IDPs, including women and children who have presently no hope of returning to their homes, is giving him sleepless nights.
“I am not a happy man seeing those IDPs and staying in the comfort of my room. I am not sleeping well. For days, I can’t sleep continuously for one hour. I cannot, because I think about them.
“They are my children, they are my fathers, they are my mothers, they are my relations. Or it could have been me in these camp or anybody from Abuja, in those camp.
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“The Presidential Committee on Victims Support Fund is also in the state. They have done their assessment but I tell you the truth, the destruction is massive. Those people cannot attempt to go back home,” Ortom stressed.
According to him, aside the support in terms of relief materials from the Federal Government and other spirited individuals, there was urgent need for President Muhammadu Buhari to take decisive action as the chief security officer of the country to end the reckless killing of innocent people in the state and others parts of Nigeria.
He said, the people of Benue were law abiding citizens who are not prepared to wage war with any ethnic group in the country.
“We have not taken laws into our hands, as you can see, we don’t have militia. If we had, they would be fighting. You would have heard that they have killed so, so number of Fulani men or herdsmen,” he said.
Governor Ortom lamented that if the situation in Benue was not addressed, there is already famine which will add more problem for the entire country.
“They have burnt down all the houses, destroyed the farm lands, even seedlings. There is famine in Benue State already as I speak to you. That is the truth. These are areas where massive food is produced, both grains and yam tubers,”Ortom said.
