‘Governor Ortom’s attackers are around him’ says Miyetti Allah

The National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhassan Saleh, has dismissed assassination claim by the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, saying the killers are within the Governor’s party.

Governor Ortom escaped assassination attempt on Saturday along Makurdi-Gboko road.

The Governor said he was returning from his farm when assailants he suspected to be Fulani herdsmen opened fire on his convoy..

He also accused the Miyetti Allah leadership of planning his assassination.

Reacting to the allegations in a statement issued on Sunday, Saleh queried the merits in the Governor’s allegation saying no herdsman lives in Benue.

According to him “Herdsmen cannot attack him. There are even no herdsmen in Benue State because he has driven them away. He’s just behaving like a tout and it’s unfortunate that such a person could become a governor. He trivialises everything. The attack is political; they are killing themselves there. There are killers around him; everybody knows.

“We don’t take him seriously again. Where are the herdsmen in Benue State? Herdsmen have no hands in whatever killings that are happening in Benue State. He has been arresting herders at the Taraba-Benue border communities with his militiamen. They would arrest herders and cattle and impose taxes on them.”

Saleh alleged that the governor was the one breeding killers in the state.

“If nemesis would catch up with him for his atrocities against herders, it’s the killers that he is breeding, not herders, that will finish him. We don’t have any hands in his matter,” he said.