SPOKESPERSON to the Nigerian President Garba Shehu has issued a warning to Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom for ‘spreading fears and falsehood against the president.’
He said this on Thursday while speaking in an interview on the Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily.
“The president has shown extraordinary patience, stomaching a lot of the garbage that Governor Ortom has been pouring over him. I am not sure in the history of this country who would have taken all of the insults that Governor Ortom has been heaping on this president,” he said.
Describing the president as humane and just, Shehu stated that Ortom statements were only a reflection of his own character.
“President Buhari does not kill people, he is not a cultist. Governor Ortom should stop spreading fears about a president who is humane, who is fair, who is just. All of the falsehoods he spreads perhaps speak to his own character rather than that of the president.
Shehu also noted that ranching and open grazing were being handled competently and did not warrant any insults on the president.
“We have a plan for all of these things and on that plan, there is a buy-in of 24, 25 states. Now, what remains is for action to follow. And the action has begun to take place in a number of states.
“I think about 10 states so far in the country have set up secretariats for our schemes. What the president did lately is nothing that should have warranted these insults,” he said.
The Benue State governor has severally accused the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari of being the worst in terms of security while reacting to the open grazing policy on Tuesday.
He recently said that the president was interested in favouring his Fulani people while keeping quiet to insecurity happening in Benue and other parts of Nigeria.
Ortom expressed his disappointment in the handling of the nation’s security challenges by the president and urged him to tender an apology to all Nigerians.
President Buhari has been accused of keeping silent while Fulani, his own ethnic group, unleash mayhem on Nigerians. Benue State has been worst hit with hundreds killed in farmer-herder clashes.
Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan was much more maligned, according to political watchers.
Since Buhari came to power in 2015, he has been accused of favouring his own ethnic group and Muslims in appointments and dispositions. Insecurity has worsened in his administration and security agencies have been accused of not being proactive.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.
Herders are like bull dogs tenders who let loose indiscriminately their pets in residential areas. Every aid FG is giving the herders clearly points that they are the primary problems in the clashes with the farmers. Worst still, the solution the FG is proposing is one sided and very insensitive to the long term implication in the others’ native lands across Nigeria. The primary land owners should have the upper say in what is native and convenient to the use of their lands. In the long run, this will be to the collective peace and respect across Nigeria.
Garba Shehu has not been able to show any of the things Ortom said that is not true.