READ! Governor Ortom's Amnesty Fails Intergity Test- By Inyom Doo Gideon

By Inyom Doo Gideon

It is no longer news that blood replaced the water in the Benue River since the assumption of the Ortom government in Benue State. The flow of this blood has reached the peak with the officials of his Government being fetched by the bullets of the assailants.

Following recent events on the social media platforms recently revealed a very scary pattern of violent crimes within the state. From assumption of office, an elder was gruesomely killed in Katsina Ala, Pa Atoza Ihindan at his project site. This killing received many condemnation yet the Goverment has failed to unravel the mystery behind the killing. This was to begin the reign of many unresolved deaths in the State sadly.
It is common site to behold a graphic image of a slain person if you are a regular user of social media in Benue State. In Makurdi and elsewhere within the state kidnapping is a new trend as every other day you hear of kidnappings of people within the urban centres, a Catholic priest has been abducted without any news of his return in sight. Many people lost their lives in the hands of their abductors in the last year in Makurdi without any single success with investigations and subsequent arrests. The okada operators took to the streets to protest the killings of their members who are killed every other night within Makurdi metropolis and their motorcycles stolen in all the incidences. The killings continued in Gboko too with a popular amnesty beneficiary Pastor was also killed along another just a few weeks ago. A compilation of the deaths will send any serious Goverment into a drawing board to assess the success of the amnesty program embarked upon by this Goverment.
I read the report of the PDP Legal Adviser, Bar Tela Mue of assassins who went looking for him at his residence the other night. There are several other non prominent figures who have faced more serious threats than most ones reported by the media but cos social stratification we rarely heard of such threats and even deaths. Yesterday, I woke up to the sad news of the killings of Denen Iaana the SSA to the Governor on Special Security, the same person that prosecuted the amnesty program was in charge of the beneficiaries. I want to join others to condemn in totality this death and to state without fear of contradiction that no one has the right to snuff out life of another person and it remains a criminal action and a sin to even our Creator.
That said, I want to state again that the several awards to the governor on this amnesty program be a source of shame and disgrace to his security team and a quick overhauling will be most timely too. How else can we the common citizens feel protected when the most secured appointee who has access to all security training and information is felled by the bullets of the assailants in such a manner? Yet someone seats and smiles to the bank with tax payers monies paid him from security votes and his team of advisers building estates when blood is spilled without a solution? How do you explain the success of a program that is characterised with many political undercurrent whereas the main criminals are protected with state resources all in the name of politics?
The death of Denen should be a wake up call to the governor to end the reign of terror and criminality in the state by ensuring that no sacred cows are offered for the sakes of the real criminals and no one person is spared for political reasons while the lives of Benue prominent sons are killed when we have the common enemy killing us in droves and occupying our ancestral homes unchallenged. Death has a way of speaking deep with its painful sting when properly reviewed.
HE Ortom, it is not too late for you to swallow the bitter pill of reality and revisiting your security approach and overhauling as the approach you have used in the last one year has failed in all tests so far. In every security approach, when it comes are reactionary it is a bad approach, the best security is that which is proactive or that which prevents and brings to the minimum, criminality. The death of your security aide is a direct indictment on your amnesty program and it's advertised successes. This amnesty program has failed It's most important integrity test.
Every amnesty program should aim at disarming both enemies and friends alike, the Benue Model however remains shrouded in many unethical paradoxes. Many questions will definitely point to the unearthing of the few imagined ends.
What is the total number arms returned from the amnesty program?
Who warehouses the arms and how were they acquired?
What has been done to those granted the amnesty in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration?
Are the security agencies empowered to carry out their roles throughout the process of this amnesty?
These answers will give a pointer to a number of actions and it will serve as a good appraisal, for now let's mourn the death by ensuring that "The highest price" has been paid by the many deaths in Benue. This one must be the end and her perpetrators fished out and punished too.