The Benue State Government has reacted to areport credited to cattle breeders in Nasarawa State, who accused Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom of sponsoring multiple attacks on them with two military aircrafts which purportedly killed over 1,000 cows in Keana and Doma local government areas of Nasarawa State.
The state described the statement by the group as a mere propaganda just to to win sympathy.
Hon Ngunan Addingi, the states Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism in a statement obtained by IDOMA VOICE on Tuesday, said the Benue State Government won’t be distracted by the blackmail of cattle breeders
The statement reads;
Nothing can be further from the truth. The said report is another propaganda crafted by armed Fulani herders to sustain their war of attrition and hatred against Governor Ortom whom they have made their number one enemy.
The unfounded allegation is also a plot by the pastoralists to cause friction between the Benue State Governor and his Nasarawa State counterpart Engr Abdullahi Sule.
The herders raised the alarm that 1,000 of their cows were killed without any pictorial evidence to back their claim and they went on to lay several unfounded accusations against the military and the Governor.
It is their strategy to win sympathy, mislead other Nigerians and continue to pursue their occupation agenda of the ancestral lands of the people. The terrorists have sacked communities on the Benue/Nasarawa border and have taken over such areas. No farming activity takes place in the affected communities any longer.
The military was only performing its duty of flushing out terrorists who wield AK47 and occupy the forests from where they launch attacks on innocent people. In the aerial surveillance carried out in border communities of Benue and Nasarawa States by Operation Whirl Stroke, no human life was lost and no cow was killed.
The Benue State Government won’t be distracted by the blackmail of cattle breeders. The Government will sustain its support to security agencies to guarantee the safety of law abiding citizens.