The Benue State Governor, Chief Samuel Ortom, has said that he is ready to give land to Fulani herders, who are ready to ranch their cattle.
The governor spoke in Abuja at the weekend during the 72nd birthday of Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, former Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico.
Ortom, who was represented by the state’s Commissioner for Education, Dennis Ityavyar, dismissed insinuation that the Tiv nation hates the Fulani, stressing that the age-long relationship between the two tribes still exists.
His new comment came as a surprise to many, who remembered immediate that the governor along with some religious leaders had joined in the overbloated ‘cries against herdsmen’ whereby he took the lead in countering every move by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration to resolve the herders/farmers clashes in the country by providing ranching as permanent solution.
In his new position, Ortom said: “Those who have a lot of cattle are still using ranching, and any Fulani person who wants to establish a ranching in Benue will have the land. Even if our ‘Chairman’ wants to start a ranch, he will get the land today.
”We will give you land and start the ranching today, so that people will see it as a model and wherever we go, we want to correct the impression because if you read history, you will see that we have always been friends with Fulani,” he said.
