Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state.
The Benue State Government on Thursday mentioned the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Musur Dan-Ali (retd.), was chargeable for the killings within the state on Wednesday.
The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Lawrence Onoja Jnr, made the allegation at a press briefing in Makurdi.
Herdsmen militia had on Wednesday invaded Tse Zongu of Mbagwen the place they killed 9 individuals together with two college students who had been on the village to sit down NECO examination.
Onoja Jnr stated that nothing may exonerate the minister as a result of the assault got here barely 24 hours after his utterance.
He mentioned, “From the timing of those killings, the militia herdsmen will need to have been inspired by the unlucky assertion of the defence minister, who had simply two days in the past instructed the suspension of the anti-open grazing legislation.
“The implication of such provocative statement is that the militia herdsmen could have been inspired in their attacks on Benue communities.”
He stated that the state authorities would now not take the ‘reckless statement’ of the minister with levity, including that Governor Samuel Ortom had already directed safety companies to shortly mobilise to the affected communities.