By Kalu Idika
Governor Samuel Ortom has said that the attempt by the presidency to twist the killings in Benue State is unfortunate and reprehensible. He accused the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government of failing to protect Benue citizens.
Ortom said these in response to the president’s media aide, Garba Shehu, who had alleged that the governor politicised insecurity in his state and allowed the crisis to escalate.
Shehu said the Buhari’s administration had taken several steps to tackle killings in Benue and more results would have been achieved if Ortom’s government showed cooperation.
But Ortom, in a statement signed by his spokesman, Nathaniel Ikyur, said the presidency statement had once again confirmed his position that the killings; mass murder in Benue by the Fulani militia had the full endorsement of the Buhari government.
The governor said that it was on record that he repeatedly pleaded with the Buhari government to intervene in the incessant invasion of Benue State by herders’ militias, describing the statement as a reckless stab by agents of genocide against the Benue people by blaming the victims.
He added that the presidency’s attempt to mock him over the loss of his senatorial seat and that of the PDP in the governorship had furthermore strengthened the 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.
