By PETER DURU, Makurdi

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has disclosed that he was marked for elimination for always saying the truth and standing by it but God prevented the masterminds from executing their plot.

The Governor was reacting in Makurdi to the recent happenings in the country and the calls in some quarters including cattle breeders and the presidency on the need for herders to embrace ranching to end the spate of killings in communities across the country, which is coming after he faced persecuted for championing ranching in the country.

He said “you can see the contradiction, I was being persecuted for saying the right thing. So, in Nigeria, nobody says the right thing and goes free.

“It is only God that has helped me to be alive to witness what is happening today, otherwise, I am aware that my death was planned and programmed but God never allowed them to execute it.

“And that is why we are not going anywhere, the good people are suppressed, the evil people, the real criminals are the ones going about and molesting people.

“I have always said that this country is infested with a lot of injustice. Sometimes you see people imprisoned for stealing chickens and goats, those who stole billions are outside there harassing people and insulting our collective sensibilities.

“There has been a failure of leadership across the board, myself included. Over the years we have not been able to provide the kind of leadership our people desired.

“That is why we need a conference and restructuring but when you talk about a Sovereign National Conference when you talk about Restructuring, people, because they have their hidden agenda, start to kick against it. “if they don’t have any hidden agenda, why can’t we sit and discuss and agree on what we need to do to reposition this country to make it better for all of us than making it better for individuals?”

“We know several people who have stolen billions, in spite of the fight against corruption and nothing is happening to them. We know the pains they are causing people, that is why we do not have good roads, that is why our railway is not working and other infrastructure.

“So we have to sit down and discuss these things, we cannot run away from it,” the governor added. (Saturday Vanguard)

Update news