Ortom started Fulani herdsmen crisis – Bauchi Governor, Bala Mohammed

Bauchi Governor, Bala Mohammed, has accused Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State of starting Fulani herdsmen crisis.

Mr. Mohammed said this in his keynote address at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists Bauchi State Council.

He said his counterparts in the South-West and South-East took the wrong approach in tackling the ongoing herders-farmers clashes.

Ondo Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on January 18, gave Fulani herdsmen a seven-day ultimatum to vacate the state’s forest reserves.

While condemning the quit notice issued to the herdsmen in some states, the governor said it was the constitutional right of every citizen to reside wherever they want.

Mr. Mohammed also berated Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom, who had accused President Muhammadu Buhari of partiality and called on the federal government to give citizens gun licences.

“The person that is most wrong is the Governor of Benue State. He started all this. If you don’t accommodate other tribes, we are also accommodating your people in Bauchi and other places,” the governor argued.

“We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro local government areas of Bauchi. Has anyone asked them to go? We have not because it is their constitutional right to be there.

The governor stated that the Fulani were exposed to the dangers of the forests, orchestrated by animals and cattle rustlers who rob them of their cows and kill them, adding that a herdsman has “no option than to defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.”