Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have continued to trade words over attacks in the early hours of Thursday, on Iye community of Guma Local government Area of Benue State.
Our correspondent gathered that some armed herdsmen invaded the community in the night shooting everywhere while also burning almost all the houses in the area.
The attack was said to have left at least two persons dead with several others injured even as locals have insisted that many were still missing.
But in a swift reaction, the APC House of Representatives candidate for Makurdi/Guma federal constituency, Terhide Utaan, who addressed newsmen in Makurdi on Thursday morning, insisted that the attack was not carried out by armed herdsmen but by the state-owned livestock guards.
Utaan accused the state governor, Samuel Ortom, and the PDP of using the livestock guards to attack innocent people of the state with the intention of creating a picture of insecurity in Iye to compel INEC to shift the election to Gbajimba as proposed by the governor.
READ ALSO: Over 1m PDP members in Lagos defect to APC, pro-Buhari group claims
“We are convinced that those who carried out that attack on Iye community are Governor Ortom’s livestock guards sponsored by the governor. It was a state-sponsored violence on the people and not perpetrated by Fulani.”
Utaan, therefore, called on the Federal government to as a matter of urgency, to disarm and disband the Benue Livestock Guards whom he accused of parading the state and bringing untold hardship to defenseless people of the state.
But in a swift reaction, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Terver Akase, fired back at the APC, saying that the party was now in a panic mood ahead of its defeat in the Saturday’s presidential election, adding that Utaan had no moral justification to accuse the governor of arming livestock guards.
Akase who described the governor as a peace-loving man insisted that the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law that was enacted by the state was not to witch hunt anybody but to protect everyone irrespective of tribe.
He said the livestock guards whom Utaan accused do not carry arms as the law does not permit them to do so but have been trained to cooperate with conventional security agencies in the state.
“Governor Ortom cannot turn round to arm militia after enacting a law to protect both farmers and herders. The livestock guards do not carry arms because the law does not permit them to carry arms.
“If the APC candidate raises that alarm, ask him where was he when his own community was invaded over the years? Utaan does not have the moral justification to accuse the governor of arming militia because they were the ones who encouraged him to sign the anti-open grazing law.
“The governor is a peace-loving man and the people of the state have come to agree that they would vote Ortom again. That is why the APC is jittery. How can Ortom arm militia after enacting a law to protect all? The law is not anti-Fulani at all,” Akase stated.
On his part, state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Bemgba Iyortyom, described as laughable, the allegation by the APC candidate that the PDP was trying to create a crisis situation in the state.
Iyortyom stated that the problems currently plaguing the state were caused by the inability of the APC-led government to protect the lives and properties of all Nigerians.
“I don’t know the parameters which the APC is using to come out with weighty allegations. The PDP is in an overwhelming mood based on the support it is receiving from the people. We will not be distracted by any of their plots because we already know that they are jittery.”