The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been urged to go after Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State by the Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Senator George Akume.
Akume made the call on Monday at a press conference in Abuja, where he asked Ortom to stop attacking President Muhammadu Buhari.
George Akume
“We call on Governor Samuel Ortom to tender an unreserved apology to President Muhammadu Buhari, for using foul language and for operating outside the set rules of engagement between the state and the federal governments.
“We call on the EFCC and ICPC Commission (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission) to thoroughly investigate the application of the total federal allocations to Benue State from May 29, 2015 to date.
“The Federal Government should as a matter of urgency direct the disbandment of the Livestock Guards in Benue State for their involvements in nefarious and criminal activities leading to the breach of peace and massacre of innocent citizens of Benue State,” Akume said.
The briefing was attended by the elders/stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue.
SaharaReporters had reported that Governor Ortom likened President Buhari’s method of tackling insecurity in Nigeria to that of the Taliban, the terrorist group which recently took over Afghanistan.
Governor Ortom remarked on Friday in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase.
The statement was titled, “Presidency turning Nigeria to a cow republic”, in reaction to Buhari’s approval of the recommendations of a committee to review “with dispatch,” 368 grazing sites across 25 states in the country.
The governor said it was clear that the Presidency wanted to plunge the country into an avoidable crisis.
He said, “In a country where insecurity has reached an all-time high with hundreds being killed by armed herdsmen, bandits, and other terrorists, the Presidency is only bordered about animals and their safety and is deploying all machinery and arsenals of government to impose grazing reserves and cattle routes on Nigerians. This is unacceptable.
“The Buhari administration has turned a blind eye to the unimaginable levels of encroachment on lands belonging to Nigerians by cattle. Mr President has never come out even once to condemn the activities of herdsmen and the attacks they visit on innocent people. The only time the President is heard speaking about atrocities of the herders is when he defends them.
“It is now clear that the Presidency wants to plunge the country into avoidable crisis. Otherwise, what is the justification for President Buhari’s insistence that grazing reserves be established across the country when Nigerians have openly kicked against the policy and have embraced ranching in place of open grazing?
“What is the difference between the Buhari administration’s approach to insecurity and the Taliban agenda in Afghanistan?
“It is now evident that the government at the centre prioritises the welfare of cattle over human beings and is bent on taking Nigeria back to the pre-colonial era with some snippets of a society wherein the words of Thomas Hobbes, life has become ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.
“The country has been turned to a cow republic by the present administration and the basic principles of equality, justice, fairness, and equity which engender peace and suppress anarchy are non-existent.”
