Principal Special Assistant to Gov. Samuel Ortom on Special Duties, Hon. Abrahams Kwaghngu, has described as a threat to food security, the burning of Ortom’s rice farm.
Suspected Fulani herdsmen reportedly set ablaze several hectares of Rice farm belonging to the Benue state governor on New Year’s Day.
The rice farm is located in Gbajimba, Guma local government area of the state.
Kwaghngu in an interview with newsmen said the act was barbaric and a threat to food security not only in Benue but in Nigeria as a whole.
He restated that a law prohibiting open grazing of cattle was still in force in the state and should be obeyed by all, stressing that the federal government needs to act fast to stop the impunity by the herders.
Hon. Kwaghngu lamented that after displacing the people from their ancestral homes for over a year, the herdsmen would not allow the little that had been cultivated to be harvested.
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The manager of the rice farm, Kena Iordzua who conducted some journalists on tour of the farm to see the extent of destruction, said the herders came to the farm with a large number of cattle during the day and set the farm on fire at three different points.
He stated that due to the wild nature of the fire as a result of the harmattan, the inferno could not be put off despite concerted efforts by those who were working on the farm.
According to Kena, security agents were mobilized to go after the herdsmen who shot sporadically in the air as they retreated towards the Nasarawa border.
He estimated the burnt portion of the rice farm to be 250 hectares which worth he said was well over N100 million.
