The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has on Wednesday morning, in an interview on ARISE Television, alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief of Army Staff, COAS, Yahaya Farouk, sent terrorists to kill Farmers in their farmlands in the State, to keep the State unprogressive, Page 36 learnt.
The Governor added that the action of the Federal Government has made it impossible for his administration to generate Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
He lamented that the killings have led to the spread of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the State.
His exact words: “My IGR is low, because of the security situation in the country; I cannot raise IGR. Today, as I talk to you, over 1.5 million people are IDPs, and are no longer going to farms.
“The Federal Government and COAS have sent people to kill Farmers in their farmland.
“We are now in the rainy season, but Farmers are no longer going to their farms, so how do I raise IGR?”
Governor Ortom also revealed during the interview, that he has been blocked by the Federal Government from taking loans from Banks to pay workers salaries and their arrears.
He said: “It is very simple, this is the blackmail of the Federal Government against me who is speaking the truth against the injustices that have been perpetrated against my State and against other parts of Nigeria.
“Go and ask them what they did in other States, did they not support the States in paying salaries.
“Just two weeks ago, I applied to collect a loan, not from the Federal Government, from the Bank, to offset the arrears of salaries that are inherited, over N70 billion, the Federal Government rejected it, because I refused to join them in the APC.
“If they had given me that money, I would have cleared it and then nobody would have been talking about issues of arrears of salaries. I have been paying salaries since 2018, when the Stakeholders met and said I should pay, and what is left is the arrears of salaries.
“And the Federal Government has refused to support me, they frustrate me. I have tried to borrow money to pay them, but they said no.”