Suswam believed in violence, procured arms for young men- Ortom

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has blamed his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam for the proliferation of light arms and weapons in the state.

Suswam, he said believed in violence, taking whatever he wanted by fore and procured arms for young men in the state to fulfill this desire.

The period of amnesty is now over and Ortom said the state government would now chase those who refused to turn in their weapons.

“The amnesty programme succeeded because more than 800 young people came out and surrendered. We have in our possession over 600 assorted weapons and ammunition that we collected from these young men.

“The last dispensation believed in violence. My predecessor and his cohorts believed they could take everything by force and they bought these arms and gave to young men. I am appealing to them to still return those arms.

“Now that the carrot approach of the amnesty programme is over, we will now adopt the stick approach. We are going to pursue them to their homes. Wherever they are, we are going to arrest them and prosecute them. We are going to go after them fully” Ortom told state house correspondents after meeting with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa.

The Benue state governor had last year announced amnesty and monetary reward for those who willingly submit their illegal arms in the state. However, violence in the state seems to be on the rise with the recent killing of the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Security, Denen Igbana, by gunmen in Makurdi last month.

Ortom who said he had cut short his vacation to address critical issues of the state, most especially security matters, economic matters, social vices and state matters that required urgent attention, added that “I cannot in any way surrender my state to criminals. I am going to fight them headlong. I am the governor of Benue State, I was duly elected and I have the backing of my people to fight criminals so that we can have a free society to build our economy”.

Responding to criticism on a new policy declaring Fridays as work free in the state, the governor said he took the decision because of the cropping season, to allow workers ample time on their farms.

“They are ignorant people. The programme is well received. Benue State has comparative advantage in agriculture.

“Now, we are finding it difficult to pay salaries. We are down by four months at the state level and five months at the local government level.

“Coming to a state that is more of civil service, I have said that I have declared Fridays as public holidays because this is cropping period. They should go to the farm between now and the end of July that is cropping period. This can help because no matter how little, whatever they contribute in agriculture will add value to the state economy.

“In any case, because there are no salaries, you know the morale of workers is even low. Apart from that, the money to prosecute good projects is not there.

Even when you did not declare Friday, it is as good as they go there and still do nothing”.

He added that by the time he is rounding off his tenure as governor in the next three years, poverty and diseases would have been eradicated from the state.

Elizabeth Archibong