INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE DISOBEYED MY ORDER ON BENUE KILLINGS, SAYS BUHARI

The President noted that the meeting was not the best place to expose the inefficiency of his appointees and appealed to residents to exercise restraint and live in peace with their neighbours.

He also appealed to the people to pay more attention to farming, especially rice cultivation, stating that rice importation had dropped by 90 per cent since some states embarked on massive production of the commodity.

The Governor Samuel Ortom, earlier in his speech appealed to the president to upgrade the ongoing military exercise in the state tagged “Ayem Akpatema”, to a wider operation to effectively curb herdsmen attacks.

“If the exercise is upgraded to a wider operation, it will assist greatly in ending the incessant attacks and senseless killings by herdsmen,” Ortom said

He urged Benue people to learn to live in peace with other people and added that many states were currently involved in massive cultivation of rice, and urged his people to join the trend, just as he reiterated his call for the arrest of the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, alleging that the body was responsible for the killings in Benue.

The governor also maintained that ranching was the best option for cattle breeding in Nigeria, and advised herdsmen to embrace it so as to minimise clashes caused by open grazing, calling  on the federal government to take over the management of the Benue University Teaching Hospital, College of Education, Katsina-Ala and Benue Polytechnic, Ugbokolo.

A representative of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Benue Chapter, Shettima Mohammed  in his remark , denied responsibility for the Benue attacks,explaining that, “our association is a peace-loving one and the exact opposite of what is being portrayed,”