BENUE: We’re facing unprecedented food crisis over attacks – Ortom

GOVERNOR Samuel Ortom has lamented that the state is currently facing unprecedented food shortage as a result of persistent attacks on communities by herdsmen.

The governor stated this yesterday when he flagged off the distribution of improved seedlings of various crops including rice and cassava corn among others to farmers in Makurdi, the state capital.

He said the situation had forced the residents to flee their farms and ancestral homes to take refuge in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.

Ortom expressed regret that the herdsmen attacks had already taken its toll on the people of the state who were facing untold hunger and starvation.

The governor, however, urged the Federal Government to check the invasion of Benue communities by armed herdsmen.

He said: “As a government we are doing everything possible to ensure that our communities are safe with the inauguration of the Community Volunteer Guards (CVG). And we believe that with the CVG working closely with the people, the herdsmen challenge will be a thing of the past soon.”