The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has fired back at the presidency over the claim that his government enabled the killings in the state.
The Informant247 recalls that Benue State has continued to make headlines over violence sponsored by suspected bandits in the state.
As earlier reported by The Informant247, the presidenc has taken a swipe at Governor of Samuel Ortom for allegedly attempting to put blame on the federal government over insecurity in his state.
A presidential media aide, Garba Shehu, affirmed that the Governor has been ”rejected” by the citizens of his state.
He said the Governor looked down on many intelligence information sent to him which he was expected to act on.
He said Ortom chose to be blaming the insecurity in the state on Fulani herdsmen.
The presidency said: “Instead, Ortom stubbornly refused to engage with the detailed, holistic approach clearly spelt out by the Federal Government. He arrogantly chose his own, destructive path.
“He blamed the Fulani for every problem that arose. He ignored numerous intelligence reports passed to him for action. He rejected police findings into investigations that didn’t meet his egotistical worldview. He politicized every life lost on his watch.
“So, thank God the people of Benue rejected him so roundly at elections. His contract was not renewed. He failed a Senate election. Even the person he endorsed for Governorship was rejected.”
While replying the Presidency on Thursday April 20, 2023, the Governor rubbished the claim describing it as “futile attempts to twist events and history”.
The chief press secretary to the governor, Nathaniel Ikyur in a statement released on Thursday said president Buhari has woefully failed in his responsibility to protect the country, especially Benue State.
“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,” the statement reads.
“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 dispossessing them of their ancestral lands.”
The Governor referred to the presidency’s claim as “an insult” to the residents of the state, whom suspected bandits have continued to either abused or killed.
“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,” the statement added.
“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.”
“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,” he said.
“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.”
