Gov Ortom Urges Buhari To Declare Miyetti Allah, Fulani Group As Terrorists

The Benue State governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, Thursday, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for ‘finally labelling bandits wrecking havocs on citizens across the country as terrorists’.

Ortom however said ‘this is not enough’, as he called on the president to ‘be bold enough to go a step further and declare Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM as terrorist organisations’.

Ortom made these known in a statement issued by his chief press secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur.

Ortom was reacting to the interview President Buhari granted the Channels Television, Wednesday, January 5th, 2022.

He said the step taken by the federal government would ‘go a long way to contain the atrocities of the criminals and give citizens opportunities to go about their legitimate businesses unmolested’.

He said, “Even though the federal government’s measures on bandits now seem strong, the security challenges will only be adequately addressed if a similar hard position is taken on Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MACBAN and the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) who have vowed and continued to cause mayhem in Benue State and other parts of the country because of the anti-grazing laws.

“For us in Benue State, the law has come to stay. It is irrevocable. In fact, we have maintained our position that Benue State has no grazing routes, reserves or areas so whatever.

“It was enacted in good faith for peace and order in the state. It was done among other things to end the incessant farmers/herdsmen’s clashes in the state.”

Governor Ortom further tasked the president to do all that ‘is necessary to revamp the ailing economy and save citizens from poverty’.

According to him, “Nigerians have absorbed enough hunger and misery in the hands of the All Progressives Congress (APC) misrule. Or is it possible that Mr President is not aware that Nigerians are dying from his misrule.”

He dismissed the president’s tagging of the PDP as failure, insisting that ‘as a critical stakeholder of the PDP, this is completely false’.

He said, “If anyone has failed, it is the Buhari-led APC federal government that has failed by taking Nigeria from top to bottom.

“The PDP is ready to rescue Nigeria from the insecurity and economic horrors placed on Nigerians by the APC. The party is better prepared with laudable programmes on the welfare of Nigerians and to rebuild the nation from the APC tale of woes.”

He said the APC administration had since ‘ran out of ideas’, having ‘exhausted all their lies and have nothing more to tell Nigerians’.