Benue State Government has refuted allegations that Governor Samuel Ortom sponsored multiple attacks with two military aircrafts and purportedly killed over 1,000 cows belonging to Cattle Breeders in Keana and Doma local government areas of Nasarawa State.
Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Mrs Ngunan Addingi, while reacting to a report credited to the association said it is not only a lie but also a propaganda crafted by armed Fulani herders to sustain their war of attrition and hatred against Governor Ortom whom they have made their number one enemy.
“The unfounded allegation is also a plot by the pastoralists to cause friction between the Benue State Governor and his Nasarawa State counterpart, Mr. Abdullahi Sule.
“The herders raised the alarm that 1,000 of their cows were killed without any pictorial evidence to back their claim and they went on to lay several unfounded accusations against the military and the Governor.
“It is their strategy to win sympathy, mislead other Nigerians and continue to pursue their occupation agenda of the ancestral lands of the people.
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Addingi lamented that the terrorists have sacked communities on the Benue/Nasarawa border and have taken over such areas as no farming activity takes place in the affected communities any longer.
“The military was only performing its duty of flushing out terrorists who wield AK47 and occupy the forests from where they launch attacks on innocent people. In the aerial surveillance carried out in border communities of Benue and Nasarawa States by Operation Whirl Stroke, no human life was lost and no cow was killed.
She said the Benue State Government won’t be distracted by the blackmail of cattle breeders rather Government will sustain its support to security agencies to guarantee the safety of law abiding citizens.
