Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has said since he has been blocked from visiting President Muhammadu Buhari to discuss issues on security and the way forward by those around him, he has resorted to using the media as a medium of reaching the president.
Ortom made the allegations on Channels Television Sunrise Daily programme yesterday when he spoke on grazing reserves and cattle routes recently proposed in 25 states by the federal government.
He said there was no land in Benue State for open grazing, but there is land for ranching for any interested applicant.
Ortom said, “Since I cannot visit the president personally, to tell him the Benue story, I will use the mass media to reach him, because even if the president is not there to listen to me, one person around him may hear and tell him”
According to him, the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has brought the country to 20 years of retrogression, and when I advised the president on what should be the way forward, they would insult me to divert attention, how can I keep quiet when my People are being killed and displaced.
He said, “When I assume duty as the Benue State governor in 2015 I met over N70 billion arrears, and wrote to the President and N28 billion bailout was given to Benue which we are paying now, but now the president is only releasing money to the APC States. No wonder a former APC national chairman said that when you defect to APC your sins are forgiven” Ortom added
On the issue of attempted assassination on his life, Governor Ortom said till date he has not heard anything apart from we are still on investigation by the Inspector General of Police, adding that even those they told me that were arrested I don’t know whether they are being prosecuted or not.
On the issue of arming livestock guards and other militia in the state, the governor said it is a cheap blackmail by the presidency to divert attention from the main security problem and other issues facing the country.
“When this issue of insecurity started in Benue, I alerted all the security formations in the state including the presidency and I was told to go and tell my people to learn how to live peacefully with their neighbours. Tell me, how can you tell an armless person to live with people who carry AK47 and only come in the night to attack and go?
“President Muhammadu Buhari is not the first Fulani Man that headed this nation. We have Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and we know what they did for Nigerians, so it is a logical fallacy for me to say all Fulani people are bad. And I am not against any of them, whoever wants to come and stay in Benue and do livestock business can come, all we are asking is respect the Law of the Land”
“For those keeping quiet, I want to tell them that the day of reckoning shall surely come, but for me it is my right and duty to advise the president that where he is taken the country is not correct.”
