The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has lambasted the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore for calling for a state of emergency in Benue and Taraba states.
He said that instead of declaring a state of emergency in Benue, the Federal Government should declare the group as a terrorist group and order the immediate arrest and prosecution of its leaders by the police.
The governor made this known in a statement through his media aide, Tahav Agerzua, on Thursday.
According to The Punch, Ortom was reacting to the call by the National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, that a state of emergency should be declared in both states on account of the herdsmen-farmers clashes in the states.
Ortom said that what both states have in common is the enactment of an anti-open grazing law.
He said that declaring a state of emergency in Benue would be tantamount to punishing him for enacting laws for the good governance of the state.
“Incidentally, what Benue and Taraba states have in common is the enactment and implementation of ranches laws which prohibit open grazing.
“These laws were made in accordance with the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as amended, to curb incessant clashes between farmers and herders that had taken a huge toll on human lives and property in the two states,” he said.
He added, “The call (for state of emergency) is unrealistic , untenable and unacceptable because many other states across the six geopolitical zones of the country have been affected by similar crisis, sometimes at a greater magnitude than the two states, yet the call does not include them.”
He equally described as disingenuous the attempt to link the enactment of the law to the non-payment of salaries in the state, noting that the non-payment issue was not peculiar to Benue but other affected States have not enacted similar laws.
He said the state government was already working assiduously to regularise salary payment commencing from January 2018.
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