Ortom rains curses on perpetrators of Benue killings

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has rained curses on those who perpetrated the recent killing of over 73 people in the state.

Ortom who pronounced the curses yesterday at an emergency meeting in Makurdi, said the sponsors of the killings would never know peace.

“All those who failed to act on those letters that could have stopped the killings will one day account for the blood of our lost ones. They will account for the blood of those 73 victims buried in mass grave. Those perpetrators and their sponsors will not know peace,” he said.

The governor added that people accusing him of sponsoring 6,000 armed militia were diverting attention from the reality of the Benue invasion as he questioned the inability of the federal government to have arrested and prosecuted them.

“It is not enough to identify the Islamic State as being behind the killings. They should arrest them and prosecute them. And those accusing me of using this crisis to achieve political means against 2019 should look for something else to say because they are not Benue indigenes and they are on their own.”

Ortom commended the security operatives deployed to the state, saying their coming had reduced crisis, but he worried that tension was building up at the Agatu axis of the state following alleged pressure by some armed herders to cross over the River Benue from the Nasarawa side into the area to openly graze their animals.

“We have a law in Benue state and no herder is expected to openly graze their cattle,” he said.