February 08, (THEWILL) – Senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Benue North West district, Dr Titus Tartenger Zam, has decried the rate of killings arising from the implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Law of Benue state, attributing it to the lack of purposeful leadership of Governor Samuel Ortom’s administration.
Interfacing with newsmen at the Nigeria Union of Journalist’s secretariat, Makurdi, on Wednesday, Zam, who served as Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the Ortom administration from 2015 to 2018, accused Ortom of orchestrating attacks on innocent people in Gwer West, Makurdi and Guma local government areas of the state, which are populated mostly of Ihyarev extraction.
“Governor Samuel Ortom is not doing well to be rewarded with the senate position. Cries and shouting without concrete steps towards solving the conflicts between farmers and herders are his greatest undoing.”
According to the former chairman of Gwer West local government council, governor Ortom had Jettisoned the Atom Kpera-led Committee that recommended ways of resolving the crisis between farmers and herders, as well as foot-dragged in presenting the bill to the state house of assembly for passage until the civil society organisations mounted pressure on him.
The senatorial hopeful also accused governor Ortom of allowing the Livestock Guards and Benue Community Volunteer Guards to seize cows and camp them at the Gwer West local government headquarters in Naka, which is prone to attacks by herdsmen.
Denying involvement in the alleged ghost workers syndrome while serving as the Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Zam noted that governor Ortom, who has the right to hire and fire civil servants should be held responsible.
He described Governor Ortom as a man, who is vindictive in nature and who swept all good things his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam, put in place and went ahead to set up the Justice Elizabeth Kpojime commission that indicted him.
The APC senatorial candidate said if voted into the senate, he will work with other stakeholders to ensure the security of lives and property of his constituents and the country at large.
He also listed agriculture, education, Youths and Women empowerment and social services, and rural development as some of the sectors that will be given priority as a senator and called on Benue people to be wary of the antics of the ruling PDP in the state.
