Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State narrowly escaped death on Saturday as gunmen suspected to be herdsmen ambushed his convoy.
The incident happened at Tyomu community, a distance of less than 20 kilometers from Makurdi, the Benue State capital, while returning from Gboko Road.
It was gathered that the gunmen opened fire on his convoy but were repelled by his security men.
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In a statement, the governor said, “You know today is Saturday and is normal as a farmer, I usually go to my farm, so I went to my farm along Gboko road and on our way back, we started hearing some gunshots and we discovered people who were dressed in black and from experience we now discovered that these are fulani militias and I do not want to take things for granted because few days ago the media were awash with statement from MACBAN who met in Yola, the same place they met in 2016 where they decided that they will take Nigeria and that every other person is a slave that was when they started infiltrating the entire country.”
He added, “My lawyer is going to make a petition against the leadership of MACBAN because they came out to target me and behind the scene they are planning to eliminate me on my own land. If I can’t go to the farm as governor with entire security around me then who else can go to farm? You can imagine the pains that we have here in Benue State.”
“I appreciate the security personnel attached to me they were able to repel them and they could not have access to me,” Ortom stated.
