Former Governor of Benue State, Chief Samuel Ortom, has urged his successor, Governor Hyacinth Alia, to stop politicizing the state’s security crisis and take urgent action to protect citizens.
Ortom’s position was conveyed in a statement issued by his media aide, Terver Akase, in response to comments from Governor Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo. Kula had earlier criticized the former governor while defending Governor Alia against accusations made by Hon. Dickson Tarkighir, the lawmaker representing Makurdi/Guma Federal Constituency. Tarkighir had claimed that Governor Alia was refusing to provide logistical support to security agencies fighting armed herders in the state.
Dismissing the allegations as false, Kula stated that “Governor Hyacinth Alia has never withheld logistics from security agencies,” and accused Tarkighir of misrepresenting Ortom’s tenure by suggesting that herder attacks were better managed during his administration. He noted that under Ortom, Benue recorded its highest-ever number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), with over four million people forced from their homes.
Reacting to the statement, Akase accused the Alia administration of being fixated on Ortom, using every opportunity to discredit the former governor, even when the discourse has nothing to do with him.
“Governor Alia and his appointees seem obsessed with Samuel Ortom,” Akase said. “They constantly drag him into conversations to distract from their own failures.”
He described the claim of four million IDPs during Ortom’s tenure as false, emphasizing that the Ortom administration had implemented strategic partnerships and established a humanitarian response plan in collaboration with international and local agencies. Through Benue SEMA, he said, reliable data was collected, which informed the management of IDPs and Cameroonian refugees in the state.
Akase further pointed out that the 1.5 million IDPs figure currently used by the Alia administration is the same data handed over by the Ortom government and presented by Alia himself to the media and aid organizations in 2023.
He accused the current administration of downplaying the scale of the crisis by misrepresenting figures and trying to frame the violent attacks as mere communal clashes. “People are being slaughtered by armed herders, yet the government is spinning different narratives to downplay the situation,” Akase said.
He criticized Governor Alia’s shifting explanations, from blaming foreign attackers and cattle rustling, to accusing Abuja-based politicians and even labeling local clergymen as “religious bandits.” According to Akase, these inconsistent claims show that the governor either does not understand the security situation or is deliberately misleading the public.
Akase also questioned why the governor had yet to act on the security recommendations offered by President Bola Tinubu during a recent visit to the state.
“Five days after the President visited and laid out a security roadmap, Governor Alia has not taken any steps to implement those recommendations,” he said.
He noted that just two days earlier, hundreds of IDPs at the Makurdi International Market camp protested over neglect and chose to leave the camp out of frustration. “Rather than responding to their plight, the governor’s press team is busy with political attacks,” he said.
The former governor’s media aide advised that the state government should empower the 23 local government councils to manage their own resources in line with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling granting full financial autonomy to local governments.
“Allocations to LGAs have increased by over 400% since fuel subsidy removal, yet the councils remain helpless. The State Assembly has passed multiple resolutions urging the governor to let them manage their funds, but these have been ignored,” Akase stated.
Concluding, he said: “If Governor Alia’s administration lacks the capacity to handle the security crisis, it should admit it and call stakeholders for support, as President Tinubu also advised, instead of fighting imaginary enemies.”
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