Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

Governor Samuel Ortom has raised alarm over imminent famine in the state following sustained attacks on the agrarian state by Fulani herdsmen since January this year.

The Governor stated this at the Government House in Makurdi during a courtesy call by the presidential committee on rehabilitation of communities affected by the farmers-herdsmen crisis. He suggested that that attacks on the Food Basket state by herdsmen had posed a threat to food security.

Ortom, who maintained that renewed attacks on Benue communities came at a time farmers were harvesting their farm produce, worried that the invading herdsmen were using crops seeds as feed for their cattle after displacing farmers.

He further expressed worry that people were still in IDPs camps when they should have resumed agricultural activities such as preparing land for the next cropping season were approaching, saying the neglect points to imminent famine.

He said what was happening in the state was an invasion for occupation and not grazing as is being alleged in some quarters.

Governor Ortom called for the reconstruction of ravaged communities and provision of public amenities, including portable drinking water, provision of agricultural inputs and credit facilities, adding that the attacks had caused social, emotional and psychological damage to the people of Benue.

Earlier in his speech, leader of the delegation and Director of Relief and Rehabilitation of the National Emergency Management Agency, Mr. Kayode Fagbemi, disclosed that they were in the state to carry out an assessment of damages caused to communities with a view to rebuilding them.

He condoled with the government and people of the state over the shocking massacre by rogue Fulani herdsmen.