From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The immediate past Governor of Benue state, Chief Samuel Ortom has advised the Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia to adopt the security roadmap that President Bola Tinubu personally crafted for him in solving the security challenges in the state.
Chief Ortom made this call in a statement signed by his Media Adviser, Terver Akase, and made available to newsmen in Makurdi, on Sunday.
The ex Governor said he is worried that five days after the president visited the state the Governor has not made by move to implement the president’s advice despite the urgency to address the security issues in the state.
Chief Ortom was responding to a statement issued by Governor Hyacinth Alia, through his Chief Press Secretary, in which according to him, the Governor, while responding to the member representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon. Dickson Tarkighir, dedicated a large part of the statement to unprovoked vituperation against him, Chief Samuel Ortom.
Ortom who noted that the present administration and its appointees are obsessed with his name said even when a discourse has nothing to do with him, they find a way to drag him in.
“In his latest statement, Governor Alia, among other things, claimed that “under Ortom’s watch, Benue State recorded the highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in its history, with over 4 million people displaced from their ancestral homes. This figure underscores the failure of reactive rhetoric without strategic support for security architecture.”
“As if Benue State is in some contest to determine under whose leadership more people are/were killed, Governor Alia gleefully asserted in his statement that during his time, the number of internally displaced persons has dropped to less than 1.5 million.”
Ortom explained that at no point in his two tenures did he claim that Benue had 4 million IDPs.
He said his administration developed the Benue State Humanitarian Response Plan and generated empirical and verifiable data on IDPs and Cameroonian refugees through Benue SEMA, in collaboration with and partnership among MDAs, local, national, and international organizations such as NEMA, NCFRMI, UNHCR, IOM, UNDP, UNICEF, MSF, ICRC, FJDP, BENGONET, Jiredoo Foundation, among others.
According to him, “Governor Alia inherited, accepted, mentioned, and presented the same data of 1.5 million IDPs handed to him by the Ortom administration several times to the media and humanitarian partners at the beginning of his government in 2023. It is the same data and operational structures that Governor Alia has continued to use to this day.
“We are left with no other choice than to advise Governor Alia and his team to stop playing games with the insecurity situation confronting the state. People are being killed like animals by armed herders. Trying to minimize the magnitude of the attacks by concealing casualty figures, the number of displaced persons, and making the attacks appear as mere communal clashes or skirmishes will not help solve the problem.”
“We advise the Governor to adopt the security roadmap that President Bola Tinubu personally crafted for him when the President visited the state.
“It has been five days since the President visited and made very useful recommendations on addressing insecurity in the state, but the Governor has apparently yet to begin implementing any of the recommendations.
” We also advise that if Governor Alia and his administration are out of their depth in handling the security challenges in the state, they should publicly admit their incapacity and call stakeholders for help as President Tinubu also counseled him recently, rather than throwing canisters at imaginary opponents”
He, however, urged Governor Alia to take advantage of the huge allocations now coming to the state from the federation’s account following the removal of fuel subsidies to address the security situation in the state and also foster development in various sectors.
“We recommend that to fight the insecurity ravaging parts of Benue State, the governor should allow the 23 local governments to take control of their resources to enable them effectively mobilize security in their domains and also provide development for their people.
He said the governor should obey the Supreme Court judgment granting full financial autonomy for local governments and let them run their affairs saying “The 23 local governments have been lamenting, the Benue State House of Assembly has also passed resolutions repeatedly urging Governor Alia to allow local governments control their resources, but sadly, all such pleas and interventions have fallen on deaf ears.”
The statement emphasize that Chief Ortom is no longer the governor; he played his role and stepped aside adding that henceforth, any falsehood propagated by the current administration against Ortom will be met with a corresponding response.