Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday warned that he would use the rule of law to ensure that any Fulani herdsman who dared to come to the state for vigilante group was jailed.

Recall that the Fulani organisation, Miyeitti Allah Kauta Hore, had at a press conference in Abuja recently, vowed to establish vigilante group in all states of federation to combat insecurity.

In his response to this, Ortom through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, warned the Fulani organisation not to come to his state, adding that their motive was to carry their heinous activities to another level.

The association, while also reacting to the statement, threatened to drag the governor and Benue State to court unless he retracted the statement

But Ortom, while speaking with journalists on Thursday, said,

No Fulani group will come to Benue State where I’m the governor; you people know that it is a lie, they cannot come.

No room for vigilante group in whatever kind. When I confronted them, they said they would not use vigilante group of Nigeria. That one will not operate here.

We have our own vigilante that operates here; we have community policing in which we are recruiting now and livestock guard that take care of herdsmen in active support with security men.

So no single vigilante group of Miyeitti Allah will come to Benue State to make any noise here. For us in Benue State, we believe in the rule of law and we will jail them.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.