Chairman Gboko local government area of Benue State Isaac Mtom has disclosed that 96 suspected cultists have been arrested through the efforts of his taskforce team and handed over to the Benue Police Command for onward investigation.
Mtom who disclosed this in an interview with LEADERSHIP lamented that on assumption of office, he discovered that the people of Gboko, the headquarters of the Tiv nation, housing the paramount ruler of the Tiv people, were not sleeping with their eyes closed.
He said, “When I discover this, I quickly constituted a Taskforce team to help the conventional security in the arrest of cultists and criminals, because the conventional security may not know their hideouts and on the daily basis in the mid night over 500 cultists less than 18 years of age go out terrorising residents and whoever they caught only God can tell the rest of the story.”
According to him, “I said to myself I cannot allow criminals and cultists to take over the LG, so with the help of this Taskforce, 96 of them have been arrested and handed over to the police and as I speak to you now, the issue of criminality and cultism has been put to rest in Gboko LG, residents are now sleeping with their eyes closed and as well going about to do their normal activities.”
The chairman also informed that the issue of multiple taxation and illegal checkpoints which almost crippled business activities in Gboko has become a thing of the past adding that as a youth “If I failed as chairman, I have failed the entire youths.”
“When I came on board, the illegal collections were tagged chairman’s okra and I told them no, I did not farm okra in the market neither did I own any okra farm, and I quickly put a stop to all that for free flow of business activities,” he added.
He said, “ Why I did this was that when I flash back and think about the over 30 chairmen that were before me and discovered that most of then leave office and within a twinkle of an eye became poor, and inquire to know, and I was told is because of embezzlement of people’s money and I vow it will never happen in my time as a young man, because as a chairman, you are directly dealing with the people at grassroots so you need to be careful with the policies you are making because it may affect you negatively in the future.”