No cattle routes in Benue State, Ortom tells president

The Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has said that there are no cattle routes in his state contrary to the live-televised comments last Wednesday credited to President Muhammadu Buhari during his presidential debate stating that he would re-introduce cattle routes across the nation.

Ortom said this yesterday at NKST Church, Buruku, while interacting with officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) during his re-election campaign in the local council.He said the President’s overall performance was shameful and a confirmation of what his wife referred to as losing control to a cabal that had taken charge of the administration.

He stated that even if there were such routes gazetted, he would have de-gazetted them as the current population of the state had made such routes untenable.

Besides, the governor said that at the time such routes were contemplated in the 60s, the entire population of the country was about 40 million while the current population is about 200 million thereby foreclosing the possibility of such routes.He said the All Progressives Congress (APC)-controlled Federal Government failed to forestall attacks on the state by Jihadists who openly declared their conquest and occupation agenda on the state and thereafter failed to give the people justice when they demanded it.

According to him, this development, coupled with what he described as the deliberate neglect of Benue people by not giving them strategic positions in government, prompted him to seek an alternative platform on which to pursue his re-election. He, therefore, appealed to the people to vote for all the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party.