Benue killings: Nothing must happen to Ortom, group tells IGP

An Abuja-based civil society organisation, the Sanctity Transparency Peace Initiative, has told the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, that nothing negative must happen to the Governor of Benue State, Mr. Samuel Ortom.


The group also called on the police boss to come clean on the alleged complicity of the police and it’s alleged negligence which it said had worsened the herdsmen crisis across the country.

In a communiqué issued after its emergency meeting in Abuja on Friday, the group condemned what it described as the deteriorating security situation in Benue and other parts of the country, saying the killings had continued unabated.

In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr. Sunday Alakho, the group said that the IGP’s initial description of the mass murder of innocent villagers by herdsmen as a mere communal clash was “callous and insensitive, and targeted at people crying out for justice.”

He also expressed the group’s deep concern over remarks credited to the IGP that the implementation of the Open Grazing Prohibition Law was responsible for the killings, saying he wondered if the same law was responsible for the herdsmen mayhem in Plateau and other states, where such laws do not exist.

He maintained that the complicity of the police was confirmed when the Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood referred to the governor as a “drowning man.”

Alakho demanded a full public explanation from the police authorities on what it meant by branding a governor as a “drowning man,” saying such could be interpreted to mean the safety of the governor was being endangered.

He, therefore, demanded a public pronouncement by the police guaranteeing the safety of Governor Ortom, adding that the IGP should resign if he could not ensure the safety of lives and property in the troubled region.