PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has called for an open and transparent investigation into the attempted assassination of Benue State governor Samuel Ortom on Saturday.
Buhari, who described the attack as unacceptable, called on the police to fish out the perpetrators of the attack and bring them to justice.
The president, in a statement signed by presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu, warned that the incident should not be politicised.
“In expressing his sympathies, and that of the government of the federation to Governor Ortom and all Benue indigenes, President Buhari said the unfortunate incident must not be politicized, reiterating that an attack on one Nigerian is an attack on all Nigerians,” he said.
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“Let there be open and transparent investigation and whoever is linked to it should be caught and be made to face the law.”
On Saturday, gunmen suspected to be herdsmen had attacked Ortom at Tyo Mu along Makurdi/Gboko Road in Makurdi Local Government Area of the state, where he had gone to inspect his farm.
Ortom, who disclosed that the armed herders, dressed in black, opened fire on him and his security aides, noted that he ran 1.5 kilometers to escape unhurt.
“You know today is Saturday and I usually go to my farm. So, I went to my farm along Gboko Road and on our way back, we started hearing some gunshots and we discovered people who were dressed in black and from experience, we now discovered that these are Fulani militias,” he recalled.
He said that though his security men were able to repel the attackers, he still had to call for reinforcement of Operation Whirl Stroke, police and State Security Service.
The governor claimed that the attack came few days after the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore held a meeting in Yola and singled him out as a thorn in their flesh that must be eliminated.
The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned the attack with a call to bring the perpetrators to book.
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