Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Tiv Youth Organization (TYO) has taken a swipe at Presidential Muhamadu Buhari over comments reportedly credited to him regarding why Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom left the All Progressives Congress (APC)
Buhari was quoted to have told members of Nigerian community in Dubai that Ortom left the APC owing to unresolved issues concerning open grazing of cattle in Benue State.
But in a swift reaction, the TYO in a statement by its President General, Timothy Hembaor posited that the President’s comment was a confirmation of his anti-Benue posture stressing that the statement had further confirmed Governor Ortom’s lack of confidence in federal authorities to protect his people.
Hembaor who opined that it was laughable, the assertion by President Buhari that those carrying out killings in Benue were not Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, referred the President to series of press conferences where Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore (MAKH) and other Fulani organisations accepted responsibility for the killings in Benue and other parts of the country.
The youth body stated that instead of advancing ways through which the crisis would be put to a permanent end, the President had disappointingly chose to dwell on how long the crises had lasted.
While maintaining that such was a clear signal that President Buhari had no solution to issues bedeviling the country, Hembaor said the President would have rather prevailed on security agencies to ensure the implementation of the ranching law which had proven to be the only solution out of the farmers/herders conflict and as a global best practice in animal husbandry instead of heaping unwarranted blames on governor Ortom.
On the President’s statement that politicians converted areas that were earmarked as grazing routes in the sixties to their private farms, the TYO said, “It is most saddening that President Buhari will be talking about grazing routes that were created in the sixties.
“What was the population of Nigeria at the time? What is the population now? So, you see this has clearly shown the President’s bias towards his Fulani brothers even as the President of the country and we as a body are solidly behind governor Ortom which was why we overwhelmingly voted him back into office.”
The body said it was for this reason that the people of the State resolved to reject the APC as was shown during the last general election, emphasizing that the people were even more determined to take their destiny in their hands and will remain resolute in defending their ancestral lands.
“Benue people are with governor Ortom so long as he stands with us, so shall we continue to stand with him”, the body stated.