Governor Samuel Ortom has cried out over allegation of threats by pan Fulani socio cultural organization, Miyetti Allah group to make the state ungovernable for him.
Governor Ortom who rushed to President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, urging the President to quickly intervene to halt the impending crises.
“I came to brief and Mr. President about the security situation in my state, about the threat about Miyetti Allah that have even taken us to court. They have been threatening that they will make the Anti-Open Grazing Act impossible for the people of Bennie State. I intimated him and also generally the security situation in the state.
” We have brought commonalities to its nearest minimum and we believe that the security agencies that are working with us will sustain the tempo. We will do everything to provide security to protect lives and property.
“Well, I am a law abiding citizen and a governor, Benue people are law abiding that is why in the midst of the provocation from herdsmen attack, we took time to ensure that we put in place, sign it and we are going to start implementation 1st of November and we hope that people will comply.
“And everyone in Benue State should appreciate the fact that it is the law that is giving us protection. It is the intention of this government to ensure that we give protection to lives and property through the rule of law.”
“So, anyone staying in Benue State must comply. One thing I must say is that the law protects herdsmen and farmers. We are against cattle rustling, those who are caught will be penalized. Those who want to stay in Benue State and do cattle business must ranch their cattles, this is what we are saying. As far as we are concern, the law is not targeted at any individual, group of people of ethnic group, it is meant to protect everyone who is living in Benue State.”
He noted that the Miyetti Allah has taken the state to court adding that “we are there with them”
“But I don’t see how they will come and over run Benue and make it ungovernable, it is not going to be accepted. We stand by what we have done, we have done our legitimate, lawful role as governor as citizens of the state, so, we don’t see how somebody will sit somewhere and say that we should not implement a law that has restored peace in our place.”
He also assured that government has directed security agencies to arrest and prosecute anyone that brings confusion to the state.
“I want to assure you that I have directed the security men to arrest those people. I am calling for the arrest of the leadership of Meyetti Allah, to be prosecuted to serve as a deterrent.
“We have for a long time celebrated impunity in this country, we cannot continue like that. And so if they come out with this kind of threat, the evidence are there, they did a world press conference, so what is the security agencies doing.”
He also assured those who may want to apply for grazing land to do so as government was ready to allocate land to them for that purposes.
“Those who want to apply to get land to ranch they should do it, there are couple of ranches around. We are also going to provide land in designated places in the three senatorial zones, these have been approved by the state executive council and as many that are interested in having these ranches, we will give them the land.”
Governor Ortom said he also briefed the President about the ecological problem in Benue State adding that ” MY major challenge is payment of salaries. It is not deliberate and we have not diverted money whether bail out or Paris club anywhere, the records are there for anyone to scrutinize and see”
“The situation is that I inherited N69 billion arrears on pensions, gratuities and salaries. Then over N70 billion contractual obligations and so it has been a huge burden on our finances and so Mr. President too has promised to find ways that the state can also get support.”
The governor also lamented that he has the highest wage bill in the country, issue is that we must admit that Benue State Wage bill is one of the highest in this country, N7.8 billion.
“My predecessor admitted that there was mistake in negotiating with them but they resisted attempts to bring it down, now we have no choice. We have said it specially when the leadership of the labour congress came and we dialogue and we have set up technical committees comprising technical team from labour congress and technical team from my government, they will look at it and review wage bill and ensure that leakages are eliminated, salary padding and Ghost workers and all that.
“I want to assure you that we are going to prosecute anyone who is found culpable in the salary inflation.
“Honestly, N7.8 billion wage bill for Benue State is out of place and there is no way we will continue in this manner. I and my council, we have looked at the wage bill and compare with what people are collecting elsewhere in the country and we have done to an average of N4.5 billion that we just have to review it to that.
“Because an average income for Benue State both from federation account and IGI stands at slightly above N6 billion. So, if you are paying salaries alone you are have a deficit of N1.8 billion a month. It is impossible and we have security issues to tackle and several other things that government must run and so it becomes a big problem.
“I don’t have problems with my workers because they understood it, we are transparent, everybody has seen what we are doing but we have to find a way around it. I can assure you that in the next few weeks that is what we are working on and by the grace of God we will come to a reasonable figure that we will be able to pay salaries as at when due,” he said.
TONY AILEMEN, Abuja
