Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has slammed Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed for his comments supporting herders and their right to carry AK-47 to defend themselves.
Governor Ortom made the remarks while addressing newsmen in Makurdi, Benue State capital on Monday.
He said Muhamed must be a terrorist for supporting the use of illegal firearms by the herders.
Ortom said, “I wouldn’t want to be joining issues with my brother, friend, and colleague Bauchi Governor. But since he has continued to vilify, intimidate and blackmail me. It is said that silence is consent. I am compelled to respond to him.
“I am beginning to think that my brother, the governor of Bauchi State is part of the terrorist Fulani organisation that is terrorising this country.
“Why do I say this? This is the same governor who took the oath of office to protect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This constitution does not leave room for allowing foreign herdsmen to come in without valid papers.
“This is a man who says that a Fulani man is a global man and can come in from anywhere and enter Nigeria. It is quite disappointing to hear a governor who took the oath of office …maybe he should go back and check the oath of office he took to check maybe the constitution gives room for foreign terrorist Fulani herdsmen to come into Nigeria.”
Recall that Mohammed had come under criticism for saying herders need to carry AK-47 to defend themselves against cattle rustlers because the government and society are not defending them.
But on last week Friday, he claimed that his comment about the AK-47 is a figure of speech for protection.
The governor said, “It is a figure of speech to show you the despondence, the desperation and frustration and the agony that this particular person is exposed to by his own people, by his own tribe and by other tribes who have all seen him as a criminal and therefore, he has the inalienable right to protect himself.”
