The Benue State Government has
reacted to the clarifications made by the presidency on President Buhari’s
effort in the security situation in the State.
A comment on the security
situation in the state blames the poor intervention by president Buhari on
Governor Ortom’s stiff opposition to intervention.
But a statement issued and signed
by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Nathaniel Ikyur, on Thursday in
reaction to the presidency’s comment, says with the latest position of the
presidency, it has become glaring that killing in the state by suspected Fulani
militias has the full endorsement of the Buhari government.
It further said that it’s 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
President Buhari has failed woefully in securing Nigeria, and Benue state in
particular,” it said.
Read full statement below…
Shehu Garba’s infantile statement
on the security situation in Benue State has once again confirmed our position
that the killings; mass murder in Benue by the Fulani militia has the full
endorsement of the Buhari government. It also goes to confirm that the Presidential
spokesman does not only speak for Buhari but for some terrorist Fulani groups
too.
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 President Buhari has failed woefully in securing Nigeria, and
Benue state in particular.
It is on record that Governor
Samuel Ortom has repeatedly pleaded with the Buhari government to intervene in
the incessant invasion of Benue State by Fulani militias. The President sadly
chooses to endorse the invasion and merely asks our people to learn to
accommodate their neighbours who derive pleasure in killing and dispossesing
them of their ancestral lands.
What the Buhari administration
has done to our people through the Fulani militants as confirmed by Shehu Garba
is to spit on the graves of our compatriots mowed down needlessly by Fulani
militia. We shall not forget these atrocities.
Besides unleashing Fulani killers
on our people, the Buhari government denied Benue State any meaningful project
in the last eight years, including the repair of federal government roads in
the state which are now death traps. We have tried in vain to find out the
offense of Benue people, but we found none, except that our people are
responsible, law abiding citizens.
For the avoidance of doubt,
Governor Samuel Ortom was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 to defend the
interest of the people of Benue and never to be a lackey in the hands of
expansionists using every means to perpetrate evil against the Benue citizens.
By Garba Shehu’s latest
statement, the presidency has clearly demonstrated that Governor Ortom is right
when he consistently accused the APC-led federal government of complicity in
the killings orchestrated against Benue people by the Fulani herdsmen as
represented by Miyetti Allah Kautal, Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM and
other Fulani socio cultural groups.
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?
The Presidency has shown in this
recent public statement that they have placed cows above human lives and made
the animals to urinate on the graves of those they massacred in Benue and
elsewhere across the country. If not, they wouldn’t have gone to town to mock
the slain in their graves.
It is an insult on Benue people
including those killed and butchered children, the maimed, raped and abused
women and the over two million people living under squalid conditions in
Nigeria’s largest Internally Displaced Camps in the state.
The Presidency’s statement is a
reckless stab by agents of genocide against the Benue people by blaming the
victims.
Let Garba Shehu and occupants of
the current Presidential Villa be informed that the ongoing pogrom in Benue
State is a designed plot by the Fulani against the Benue people to disposses
them of their lands and these atrocities are well documented. The perpetrators
are also well known to local and international authorities. By this recent
posturing, everyone is now aware that the perpetrators have the backing and
sympathy of the Federal Government.
The Presidency’s attempt to mock
Governor Ortom over the loss of his senatorial seat and the PDP in the
Governorship has furthermore strengthened our 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 APC.
But let the Presidential spokesman
remember that Governor Ortom is extremely grateful to the people of the State
for always giving him the opportunity to serve them. As he has often quoted
Psalm 34:19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers
him out of them all.” The Governor stands for justice, equity and fairness and
no amount of blackmail and impunity as orchestrated by the Buhari
administration can make him to change his advocacy against injustice and
oppression.
In fact, before the elections,
Governor Ortom had publicly stated that he was ready to sacrifice his
senatorial ambition for the sake of the survival of democracy where the likes
of Garba Shehu and their collaborators would rather want it truncated. It is
public knowledge that the 2023 elections were heavily rigged using some
security operatives, money, federal might and electronic means. Governor
Ortom’s decision not to challenge the result of the Benue North West Senatorial
election in court again points to the fact that he is not a selfish and desperate
politician.
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 gratuity.
In a nutshell, the presidency’s
statement is the height of recklessness and gross insensitivity against the
people of Benue. It is on record that Governor Ortom has given full cooperation
to all layers of security agencies working in the state to help curtail the
menace of the Fulani killing squad displacing various communities in the state
and other internal security skirmishes.
Between 2015 and this year,
Governor Ortom has constantly held security meetings and gathered intelligence
to support security agencies operating in the state. He has however
consistently pointed out that the security agencies are grossly underfunded and
deserve to be better equipped and motivated to tackle insecurity in the
country.
It is therefore laughable when
Shehu ignorantly tries to whip up an unfounded lie against the Governor.
Governor Ortom is performing his
duty as Governor of Benue State and will continue to do so until May 29, 2023
when he leaves office. We expect the outgoing President to also do what he was
voted to do for Nigerians.
Lastly, we are tempted to
conclude that President Buhari was not aware of Garba Shehu’s statement,
because if the President were aware, he would not have permitted his media aide
to release a statement that rather indicts him as Commander-in-Chief of
Nigeria’s Armed Forces for abdicating his constitutional duty of providing
security to Benue State and other parts of the country, admitting failure and
opting to blame a state Governor.
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