Embrace animal husbandry, Ortom tells Benue people

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue on Friday called on the people of the state to pay more attention to livestock farming to stop capital flight.

Ortom made the call at the memorial service held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral, Makurdi to honour the victims of herdsmen massacre who were given mass burial on Jan. 11, 2018.

According to him, the huge sums the people use to purchase cattle from Fulani herdsmen will be saved.

“With the research we have carried out, over N2.1 billion usually move out of the state to the Fulani herdsmen for the purchase and consumption of cattle during yuletide.

“Instead of pushing this amount to Fulani herdsmen and our youths engaging in shoddy businesses, it is better they direct their energy on the local production of livestock to stop capital flight.

”Despite the huge amount being used to purchase cattle from the herdsmen, they continuously carry out attack on the state,” he said.

The governor expressed regret that some politicians in the state were trying to change the narrative in spite of obvious signs that the Fulani herdsmen were responsible for the dastardly attacks on the state.

The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Akpen Leva placed a curse on people who were corroborating with outsiders to cause mayhem on the people.

Leva called on the Federal Government to reconstruct the homes destroyed by the invaders to enable the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to return to their homes.

“The people need to be rehabilitated to keep them going, other infrastructure also need to be reconstructed such as schools, hospitals among others as is the case in the North East,” he said.