I don’t have snake farm – Ortom

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue has refuted speculation in some quarters that he was rearing snakes.

Ortom refuted this on Tuesday in Makurdi while interacting with journalists.

He said the news was anchored on falsehood with the intention to cast aspersion on his personality and portray him in a bad light.

The governor said that though owning a snake farm was not a crime, he had never contemplated undertaking such an activity.

He said that he was currently rearing poultry, piggery, snail, cattle, goats, and mushroom among others, but could and would not venture into snake farming.

The governor, however, said that he had a scheme were victims of snake bites had been receiving treatment for the 20 years ago.

He also said that he made arrangement with St. Theresa’s and Rahama Hospitals, all in Makurdi, to treat snake bite victims on his account.

Ortm disclosed that between February and June, he had an outstanding bill of over N30 million to settle adding that none of the victims was related to him.

He said that he decided to initiate the scheme because most of the victims were usually poor people who could not adequately foot the bills of their treatments.

According to the governor, his steps in in such humanitarian service is to save lives and not because he had money.

He said that if he had the power he would have killed all snakes in the world so that people could be free from snake bites.

The governor advised his opponents to strive to base their criticisms on critical issues rather than ”baseless and unfounded as well as unthinkable things.”

He said he desired to take Benue to lofty heights and would partner with any individual or group of persons with useful ideas that could add value to his government.

Ortom promised that the remaining part of his tenure would be more fruitful with a view to trickling down many dividends of democracy to every nook and cranny of the state.