Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, on Friday said his people were still under the threat of killer herdsmen.
Speaking when some governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC) visited him in Markurdi, the state capital, Ortom described the killings as condemnable.
The governor commended the group for identifying with the state in their moment of sorrow and said the visit had give the people of Benue State a sense of belonging.
Ortom urged the federal government to take proactive actions on the intelligence report that were gathered on threat alert in the state by the MAKH and stop the killings.
In an address, the leader of the delegation and governor of Borno State, Alhaji Kashim Shettima, said that the association had earlier resolved that anything that affected any APC state affected all.
“Because Benue State is the food basket of the country, we are very much interested in the peace of the state and, as one body, we will do all we can to ensure that peace returns to the state Our correspondent observed that unlike others who are commiserating with the state, condemning the killings, and calling for the arrest of those behind the heinous act and as well calling on the federal government to live up to its responsibility of protecting lives and properties, Governor Shettima did not make such demands in his speech.
In their separate reactions, two residents, Mr Samuel Agbir and Melody Zaase described the visit as an insult to the government and people of the state.
“The coming of the APC Governors’ Forum and Northern Governors’ Forum to us is belated. I heard their leaders saying that, as a party anything that affects one, affects all, but we did not see that reflected in them. This tragedy occured on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of January 2018 and victims were buried on the 11th of January, where was the so-called unity of the party.
“I think their coming to the state to commiserate with the government and people of the state was ignited by the visit of the leaders of Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and South South and Middle Belt Forum who were in the state timely. The governor should be bold enough to drive away all these sycophants,” they said.
