The war raging between Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State and his Bauchi counterpart, Bala Mohammed, is deepening, getting messier. Nobody knows where and how it will end because this war is itself a derivative of the wider wars raging on various fronts in Nigeria right now.
It reached a new pitch on Monday, with Ortom describing Mohammed one of the Fulanis who want to kill him.
It started when the Bauchi governor said in clear terms that the rampaging herdsmen, who have been accused of being responsible for many of the kidnappings, rape and other violent crimes in various parts of Nigeria, were doing so because their lives were threatened. And to defend themselves, the governor said the herdsmen were justified in carrying the notorious AK-47 rifle.
That comment did not go down well with many Nigerians, especially those from the Middle Belt and the Southern Part of Nigeria, including the South West, South East and the South South. These are the regions that have burnt the brunt of the herdsmen’s attacks the most. They are the areas where kidnapping and killings have become the order of the day. They are the places where farming has been affected the most because farmers have become cheap and easy victims of the kidnappers and rapists.
So, when Mohammed justified the use of the most dangerous handgun by his kinsmen in forests in the states in these regions, it raised not just a few questions from those who have felt it.
Faced with the barrage of criticisms that followed his AK-47 comment, Bala Mohamed changed his narrative. AK-47, he said, was a figure of speech. In other words, it represented any weapon, be it machetes, bows and arrows, dane guns, etc, that the herdsmen could carry in self defence. Not many people took him seriously, however.
The latest war of words between these governors took place Monday, as Ortom once again took a swipe at Mohammed, whom he described as a Fulani terrorist.
“Some herdsmen wrote me a letter that they will kill me from the way and manner my brother and Governor of Bauchi spoke in support of herdsmen carrying arms, I suspect that he is one among the Fulani who wants to kill me and should anything happen to me they should not look far,” Ortom told journalists in Makurdi. He was responding to a previous attack on him by Mohammed.
Ortom said he was surprised that a governor, who took an oath to protect lives and property, would openly support armed herdsmen who came from Ghana, Niger, Libya etc, to kill in Nigeria.
Ortom later directed herdsmen who carry arms should go to Bauchi, not in Benue.
