Principal Special Assistant to Gov. Samuel Ortom on Special
Duties, Hon. Abrahams Kwaghngu, has described as a threat to food security, the
burning of Ortom’s rice farm.
The rice farm is located in Gbajimba, Guma local government area
of the state.
Kwaghngu
in an interview with newsmen said the act was barbaric and a threat to food
security not only in Benue but in Nigeria as a whole.
He
restated that a law prohibiting open grazing of cattle was still in force in
the state and should be obeyed by all, stressing that the federal government
needs to act fast to stop the impunity by the headers.
Hon.
Kwaghngu lamented that after displacing the people from their ancestral homes
for over a year, the herdsmen would not allow the little that had been
cultivated to be harvested.
The manager of the rice farm, Kena Iordzua who conducted some
journalists on tour of the farm to see the extent of destruction, said the herders came to the
farm with a large number of cattle during the day and set the farm on fire at
three different points.
He
stated that due to the wild nature of the fire as a result of the harmattan,
the inferno could not be put off despite concerted efforts by those who were
working on the farm.
According
to Kena, security agents were mobilized to go after the herdsmen who shot
sporadically in the air as they retreated towards the Nasarawa border.
He
estimated the burnt portion of the rice farm to be 250 hectares which worth he
said was well over N100 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment