The Special Investigation Task Force earlier set up by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, had since arrived Benue State to continue the investigation in an effort to unravel the identity of the gunmen.
It would be recalled that on Saturday, March 21, 2021, Governor Ortom, at a media briefing in Makurdi announced that he narrowly escaped death when gunmen wearing black attacked him when he went to inspect his farm.
While narrating his experience, the governor said: “You know today is Saturday and is normal as a farmer, I usually go to my farm, so I went to my farm along Gboko road. And on our way back, we started hearing some gunshots and we discovered people who were dressed in black, and from experience, we now discovered that these are Fulani militias and I do not want to take things for granted because few days ago, the media were awash with statement from MACBAN who met in Yola, the same place they met in 2016 where they decided that they will take Nigeria and that every other person is a slave; that was when they started infiltrating the entire country.
“They came out to target me and behind the scene they are planning to eliminate me on my own land. If I can’t go to the farm as governor, with the entire security around me, then who else can go to farm? You can imagine the pains that we have here in Benue State.
“I appreciate the security personnel attached to me; they were able to repel them and they could not have access to me.”
In a swift reaction, IGP Adamu then formed an investigative team to unravel the attempted killers of the governor.
In a statement on Sunday, the Force Spokesman, Frank Mba, a Commissioner of Police (CP), disclosed that the team had since arrived the Benue state capital in preparation for the investigation.
The statement reads: “The Team, led by DCP Abba Kyari – a no-nonsense investigator – consists of operatives from the Tactical Investigation Units of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and other experienced, crack detectives with specialized competencies in crime scene investigation and reconstruction, ballistics, fingerprint analysis and other core areas of forensics.
“The Team is expected to take over and consolidate all on-going investigation into the incident. The Team is also expected to investigate all angles of the reported attack with a view to ensuring that all persons empirically linked to the incident are apprehended and brought to book.”
The IGP however charged the team to be professional, thorough and clinical in their investigations, insisting that they are expected to liaise and work with the Benue State Police Command and other relevant members of the law enforcement community to ensure that they deliver on their mandate.
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