As violence continues to escalate across Benue State, former Governor Samuel Ortom has accused his successor, Governor Hyacinth Alia, of politicising the worsening security crisis in the state .
He also accused Alia of disregarding President Bola Tinubu’s recent peace recommendations in the North-Central state.
In a statement released on Sunday by his media aide, Terver Akase, the ex-governor criticised Governor Alia’s handling of the security situation.
He described it as reactive, inconsistent, and detached from the reality on the ground.
The former governor’s remarks were prompted by comments from Governor Alia’s spokesman, Kula Tersoo, who referenced Ortom’s tenure in a recent public statement.
Tersoo had claimed that under Ortom’s leadership, Benue recorded its highest number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), with over four million people forced from their homes due to insecurity. “This figure underscores the failure of reactive rhetoric without strategic support for security architecture,” he stated.
Responding to the accusation, Ortom dismissed the figure as misleading. He clarified that the data on IDPs currently in use, numbering approximately 1.5 million, was officially handed over to the Alia administration in 2023, and has remained unchanged since then.
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“People are being killed like animals by armed herders,” Ortom said, condemning what he described as Governor Alia’s attempts to downplay the crisis by attributing it to communal clashes or reprisal attacks. “Minimising the magnitude of these attacks by concealing casualty figures and the number of displaced persons will not solve the problem.”
Ortom also took aim at Governor Alia’s shifting explanations for the violence. “At one point, he says the attackers are foreigners. In another instance, he blames Fulani cattle rustling. Then he points to ‘Abuja politicians,’ and most recently, accused clergymen of being ‘religious bandits,’” he said.
According to Ortom, such conflicting narratives only add confusion and undermine the seriousness of the crisis. “This clearly indicates that the governor either has no clue about what the security situation is or is deliberately trying to mislead the public,” he said.
The former governor urged Alia to begin implementing the recommendations laid out by President Tinubu during his recent visit to the state, which focused on strengthening local security and fostering peace.
“It has been five days since the President visited and made very useful recommendations, yet there appears to be no movement towards implementation,” Ortom lamented.
He further called for local government empowerment as a key step toward addressing insecurity. “The 23 local government areas should be allowed to control their own resources. This will enable them to effectively mobilise security and drive development in their communities,” Ortom said.
He noted that since the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023, local government allocations have increased by nearly 400 percent, a development that coincided with the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling granting full financial autonomy to local councils.
“The governor should obey the Supreme Court judgment and let the councils run their affairs. The House of Assembly has passed resolutions urging this. Local governments have pleaded. But all such interventions have fallen on deaf ears,” Ortom said.
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