Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has blamed his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, for the proliferation of arms in the state.
The governor sad Mr. Suswam believed in violence, and bought arms for youth to fulfil of his political ambition.
He said the government will go after those who have refused to surrender their weapons since an amnesty window has closed.
“The amnesty programme succeeded because more than 800 young people came out and surrendered. We have in our possession over 600 assorted weapons and ammunition that we collected from these young men,” the governor said.
“The last dispensation believed in violence. My predecessor and his cohorts believed they could take everything by force and they bought these arms and gave to young men. I am appealing to them to still return those arms.
“Now that the carrot approach of the amnesty programme is over, we will now adopt the stick approach. We are going to pursue them to their homes. Wherever they are, we are going to arrest them and prosecute them. We are going to go after them fully,” Mr. Ortom told state house journalists after a meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The governor had last year announced amnesty and monetary reward for those who willingly submit their illegal arms in state that has seen spells of violence.
Last month, gunmen killed the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Security, Denen Igbana.
“I cannot in any way surrender my state to criminals. I am going to fight them headlong. I am the governor of Benue State, I was duly elected and I have the backing of my people to fight criminals so that we can have a free society to build our economy,” the governor said.
