MIXED reactions have continued to trail the establishment of the Benue Community Volunteer Guards by Governor Samuel Ortom.

Ortom had on August 4, 2022, inaugurated the 500-man Community Volunteer Guards as a response to attacks by armed Fulani herdsmen in rural communities in the state.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CsJD87Xi74

According to Ortom, the Volunteer Guards would complement efforts of conventional security agencies in the state.

The governor, in another move, wrote President Muhammadu Buhari to seek permission for the Volunteer Guards to bear arms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cQxaWutpvU

Following allegations and counter allegations that trailed the development, which pitched the government against the Fulani herdsmen, The ICIR spoke to parties involved in the saga.

Ortom, in an exclusive interview with The ICIR, explained that the lack of concern shown by the Buhari-led Federal Government to the killings and displacement of over two million people in Benue necessitated the establishment of the volunteer guards.

“So on the Fulani attacks against our communities, what we are trying to do may not necessarily put an end to it but it will minimize the level of insecurity that we have in our land, because the conventional security of the state have done their best, but I can tell you that from 2017 alone when we enacted the prohibition of open grazing and enacted provisions for ranching, to date, more than 120 security personnel have been killed; more than 5000 people from 2011 till date have been killed,” Ortom said.

The governor also disclosed that the state government had secured the conviction of over 400 Fulani herders, and confiscated more than 25,000 cows over the herdsmen’s failure to adhere to the anti-grazing law.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4ZUVusRAE4

“Four places were designated for public hearing and we went through due process. It went through the State Executive Council, it went through the House of Assembly. The House of Assembly organised four different venues for public hearing, it was held and passed and I signed it into law in 2017. Miyetti Allah came out and said they will never obey that law.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/mixed-reaction-trail-ortoms-establishment-of-benue-community-volunteers-guard/