Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has given a 72-hour ultimatum to the people of Agatu to produce those that allegedly killed one of the soldiers deployed to the area for peace keeping, Leadership reports.
Addressing journalists yesterday on the unfortunate incident which took place at Ole Gadakolo near Egba in Agatu on February 11 and the various weapons recovered from the militia group thereafter, Governor Ortom extended the state government’s sympathy to the Chief of Army Staff and the Commander of 72 Special Forces Battalion which lost a soldier.
“The action is condemnable, I apologize”, Ortom said. He assured that Benue state government would work with security agencies and traditional rulers to fish out perpetrators of the dastardly act.
He said government would do everything possible within the law to ensure that those involved are sanctioned and maintained that the killing of a soldier and the beating to coma of two others was not what his administration wanted.
Governor Ortom warned that the period of mischief and recklessness ended with the carrot approach of his Amnesty Programme and advised that with the stick approach of the programme, anyone who has illegal weapons should surrender them or have them recovered by force.
He emphasised that if Agatu youths had surrendered their weapons during the period of the carrot approach of the Amnesty Programme, the incident that took place would have been avoided. He appreciated the Nigerian Army and the commander of 72 Battalion for the efforts being made towards restoring peace in Agatu and reiterated government’s commitment towards doing everything possible to get the perpetrators and stressed the need for the people to support security agents to succeed.
Earlier, the Special Adviser on Security, Col. Edwin Jando, who displayed the weapons recovered from a militia group in Agatu, had told the governor that luck ran out on the youths when they encountered the soldiers as they left a place they celebrated the anniversary of the killing of one of them.
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