Benue State governor Samuel Ortom said it is a shame for the presidency to turn around to blame him for the invasions and killings in the state by gunmen. He said this has clearly showed the full endorsement of the killers by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration which has failed in its responsibility to protect life and property of Nigerians.
Ortom noted the Presidency’s attempt to mock him over the losses of his senatorial seat and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship race, adding that this has strengthened his belief that the massive deployment of security personnel for the elections in the state was planned and hatched in the Presidential Villa and supervised by agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
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Governor Ortom was reacting to a media story attributed to the presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu where he said the killings in Benue is Ortom’s fault and not the president’s fault. He said this has confirmed that the killings and mass murder going on in the state by the Fulani militia has the full endorsement of the presidency who has failed in its responsibility to protect lives and properties of Nigerians with Benue inclusive.
“If the Presidency can find it convenient to lay the blame of the massive killings that the Fulani have continued to perpetrate in Benue on Governor Ortom, what can it say of the massacre and kidnappings in Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto and President Buhari’s home state of Katsina among other states where the killing of innocent citizens has continued unchallenged?” he said.
The governor who spoke through the chief press secretary Nathaniel Ikyur said what the Buhari administration has done to Benue people through the militants as allegedly confirmed by Garba Shehu is to spit on the graves of the state compatriots mowed down needlessly by Fulani militia, adding that they shall not forget these atrocities in a hurry.
“Benue people are well aware that Governor Ortom has been a target of the Buhari presidency since 2017 when he boldly signed a law banning open grazing of livestock in the state. The governor has been subjected to many coordinated media attacks, probes, freezing of state accounts and other punitive measures to frustrate and cripple his administration.
“While other states were given infrastructural loans, Benue under Governor Ortom was denied access to the funds. The same thing happened when the Benue State Government met all requirements to secure N42 billion to clear the backlog of salaries, pensions and gratuities.
“Indeed, the presidential spokesman’s futile attempts to twist events and history in Benue State is unfortunate and reprehensible. It shows how much he and others in that league have misled the government and Nigerian people in the last inglorious eight years.
“It is common knowledge that as the commander-in-chief, Buhari has empowered and emboldened the Fulani pastoralists in their expansionist agenda including killings. It is equally a known fact that the President has failed woefully in securing Nigeria, and Benue State in particular,” he said.
Ortom said it is on record that he had repeatedly pleaded with the Buhari government to intervene in the incessant invasion of Benue by militias.
He lamented that the president sadly chose to endorse the invasion and merely asked “our people to learn to accommodate their neighbours who derive pleasure in killing and dispossessing them of their ancestral lands.”
The governor said what the Buhari administration had done to his people through the militant herders as confirmed by Shehu Garba is to spit on the graves of “our compatriots mowed down needlessly by the militias. We shall not forget these atrocities.”