By Matthew Ajai-Kume
Governor Samuel Ortom has appealed to Nigerians to save the country from drifting into anarchy, lawlessness and becoming a Banana republic.
He made the appeal Sunday while testifying at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Signs and Wonders Mega Parish, Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The Benue State Governor lamented that, a certain ethnic group in Nigeria which has been using its militia arm to wreck havoc and atrocities on their perceived enemies was being shielded and considered as sacred cows by constituted authorities.
Governor Ortom who narrated his plight on the assassination attempt on his life by Fulani militia at his Tyo-Mu farm on Saturday said, he had to run for more than one kilometre from the attackers who opened fire on him as his security operatives responded speedily to repel them.
He said, the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of the state is a panacea for peaceful co-existence between crop farmers and animal farmers, but Fulani herdsmen have vowed never to obey the law.
“Yesterday’s assassination attempt on my life is the fulfilment of the threat to eliminate me by the leaders of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, who in their recent national meeting at Yola, Adamawa State singled me as being the problem of herdsmen and I must be killed,” he stated.
Governor Ortom quoted the scripture that says, ‘God will prepare a table for him in the presence of his enemies’, while he added that, as long as he remains a child of God, no evil that is fashioned against him shall prosper.
The testimony service was characterised by prayers for the life of the governor by the Senior Pastor of the parish, Pastor Aderemi Fulasayo. He described Governor Ortom as the light of the country and the voice for the voiceless and maintained that, the light nor the voice shall be silent.
