More than 30 years after the 1993 military coup, the Benue State government says it will honour one of its arrowheads.
Major Gdeon Okar , the mastermind of the aborted coup against the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, the state government said will receive a state honour for his gallantry and saying the truth.
Governor Samuel Ortom disclosed this at the end of the state Executive Council meeting on Tuesday.
Quoting the governor of the state, the Commissioner for Information, Culture, and Tourism, Micheal Inalegwu said even in recent years have proved Okar right that all is not well with the country.
Recall that the highpoint of the Okar coup was to severe the north from the rest of the country, because, as he claimed then, the other part of Nigeria was being held hostage by Fulani hegemonists.
Governor Ortom has blame the farmer/ herders clash on the Fulani who he accused of trying to wipe out his people from existence.
According to him,
“When Orkar came out with that broadcast, nobody took it seriously but today all that Orkar said in that broadcast has come to pass. So, we, in Benue State, have come to realise that Orkar meant well for this country.
“So, in the council meeting today, we resolved that a street should be named after Gideon Orkar and that is to tell Nigerians that Orkar had prophesied about what the country is facing today and unfortunately, he was executed. The 9.7km road that bursts out at Apir will be named after Gideon Orkar.”
Okar alongside other coup plotters, mostly officers from the Middle Belt were executed by the Babangida regime after they were found guilty of trying to overthrow the government by force.
