VANGUARD
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has accused the Presidency of spitting on the graves of victims of armed herdsmen attacks in the state after “President Muhammadu Buhari failed woefully to secure Nigerians and Benue people in particular from the pastoralists’ expansionist agenda.”
Governor Ortom in a statement on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, was reacting to Wednesday’s statement by a presidential spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, captioned, “President Buhari’s Benue record speaks for itself, let the people of Benue speak for themselves too”.
The Presidency’s statement, among others, blamed the Benue governor for the killings in the state and also mocked his outing in the last elections.
Presidency
According to Shehu, “Fortunately, the people of Benue State know the truth. After all, it is they who have suffered under Ortom’s “leadership” — if one can call it such.
“It is they who have experienced first-hand the mass killings, the torture, the litany of atrocities as Benue’s security situation plummeted ever further.
“It is they who buried their loved ones while watching their careless, irresponsible and incompetent governor politicise on those freshly dug graves.
“And it is they who turned to the last privilege they had left: their democratic privilege, to resoundingly kick out Ortom and his so-called People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in favour of a new governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Iornem Alia from Buhari’s party, the APC.”
Ortom kicks
Reacting to the statement, Governor Ortom maintained that “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 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.
