Presidency tells Governor Ortom to stop claiming sole credit for Benue grazing law

PRESIDENCY officials have told Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to stop taking sole credit for the introduction of his new grazing laws because they were only feasible because President Muhammadu Buhari backed them.

In January last year, Benue State introduced the Open Grazing Prohibition Law designed to curb the activities of Fulani cattle herdsmen. It restricts cattle grazing to designated areas of the state in a bid to address the incessant clashes between pastoralists and farming communities.

Benue State has been at the centre of the herdsmen clashes in the country and after falling out with the federal government over the issue, Governor Ortom left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and joined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is currently campaigning for re-election and the APC has asked the governor to desist from basing his campaign on falsehoods, saying that his open grazing law would not have succeeded if the president did not support its implementation.

Mallam Garba Shehu, President Buhari's spokesman, said the governor should instead to focus on the dire issues confronting the state. He added that Governor Ortom’s campaign is clearly one designed to stir division and hatred and to divert the people’s attention from his inability to pay staff salaries and pensions for several months.

“It has been noted that the governor has been visiting churches in the state where he falsely tells congregations about President Buhari’s so-called plans to Islamise Benue State. This nonsense has formed the basis of his campaign because he has nothing to offer Benue people.

“The allegations coming from Ortom were particularly unfair when one considers how much support the governor received from the federal government, which supported his grazing laws as a means to end the farmer-herder crises that have plagued the state. If not for President Buhari’s insistence that the governor is given a chance to effect the law, he would have faced resistance from different sources and found it difficult to implement.

“While advising Ortom to immediately stop his dubious attacks on President Buhari, the federal government calls on the people of Benue State to not fall for Ortom’s deception and allow themselves to be hoodwinked by such a negative campaign. They should instead, ask him why he has refused to pay staff salaries and pensions for months and what he did with the funding from the excess crude account which should ideally have gone towards addressing such payments,” Mallam Shehu added.