Indigenes Slam Benue Gov For Allocating Land To Fulani Herdsmen

[caption id="attachment_15862" align="alignnone" width="699"]Governor Samuel Ortom[/caption]

Benue indigenes in Diaspora have slammed Governor Samuel Ortom for allocating a portion of their land in Agatu LGA to Fulani Herdsmen.

The Idomas in the Ireland, during their regional meeting in Aberdeen, criticised Governor Ortom for not seeking their consent before allocating the said land to herdsmen.

In a statement by its coordinator, Mr. Samuel Udeh, the group accused the governor to have perfected plans to “sell Agatu land to herdsmen.”

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The group further called for the immediate resignation of the incumbent Sole Administrator of Agatu, Mr. Mike Inalegwu, for being party to the land allocation.

“We the Idomas in Ireland have rejected and condemned in totality the Governor Samuel Ortom’s decision to allocate a portion of Agatu land to Fulani herdsmen for grazing.” Udeh said.

“We join our brothers and sisters, particularly the Agatus and the Idoma Students’ Union in condemning the governor’s move to sell Agatu land to herdsmen.

“It is worthy to note that we the Idoma people have no connection with Fulani people culturally, regionally, politically.

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“We wonder what made the herdsmen to be indigenous people in Agatu local government. We wonder why Nassarawa state that has a direct link with Fulani did not apportion their land to the herders for grazing. We also wonder why governor Ortom could take such decisions without consulting our royal father, His Royal Highness, Och’Idoma, Agabaidu Elias Ikoyi Obekpa or our political leader Senator David Mark before selling our land to these people who have killed our citizens for years.

“Our position is the same with our people, particularly the Agatu indigenous people back home. Our land cannot be used for political settlement; hence we call on the governor and his party to reverse this decision immediately to avoid anything that will escalate the peace that is gradually returning to Agatu. We don’t want to believe that the governor hates Idoma nation.

“We also call on Mike Inalegwu to immediately resign his position as the Agatu Sole Administrator since he cannot protect the interest of our people. We expect Inalegwu who prefers to retain his seat than securing Agatu land to vacate his seat immediately,” he said.

“What Agatu people need in this difficult time is not to allocate their land to herdsmen but to provide them with‎ materials and financial assistance to reduce the pain and hardship inflicted on them by these herdsmen.

“The people of Agatu need the government to create jobs, they want the government to seek ways to reward the local community like the north east, instead of using their land for settlement,” Udeh added.

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