Gbenro Adesina
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday February 4, 2021, said that President Muhammadu Buhari has woefully failed to live up to the oath of office he took and has betrayed Nigeria’s Constitution, stressing that rather than being a Nigerian President, he is president of the Fulani alone.
“President Muhammadu Buhari should behave like a president who is for everybody and for nobody. The way the presidency is behaving now, is a contradiction to what he told us and the oath of office that he took”, Ortom said.
Speaking in Makurdi, Ortom accused the President Buhari-led Federal Government of aiding the Fulani to terrorise Nigeria, and wondered why Buhari’s administration has failed to declare the Fulani herdsmen a terrorist group when the world’s terrorist index has declared that the Fulani is the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world.
His words, “This country belongs to all of us and the Presidency must act fast because time is going. From the North West, North East and North Central to South West, South East, and South South, there is general insecurity. This is being propelled by Fulani herdsmen. If the presidency wants peace, Miyetti Allah members must be arrested. These are the people who have owned up. They have taken responsibility that they have killed, they the maimed, they have raped and do all sorts of atrocities and yet their leadership is in Abuja and nobody is confronting them and until these people are arrested, there can not be peace in Nigeria. When I talked, I was castigated, vilified. They said all sorts of bad things against me. I am this and that. The reality is here. It is not just happening to Benue State today, it is happening to the entire country”.
He continued, “Why is the Federal Government silent about these Fulani men? When will the Federal Government come out and criticize the herdsmen and arrest herdsmen carrying AK47 guns. Are we second citizens in this country? What makes a Fulani man superior to a Tiv man? I am not their slaves. A Benue man is not a slave to Fulani man in this country. At a point in time, the Federal Government came out with a policy, through the Nigeria Police Force that even those with licensed Dane guns and double barrels, pump actions should surrender them to the police. How many times has the Federal Government come out to condemn Fulani men who are carrying AK47 all over the places? This is not correct. We stand for justice, equity and fairness. Whatever is happening to Fulani man must happen to any other person. That was why I called Federal Government to license me and many others to have guns, to have AK 47 too. If I have my AK47 and Fulani man is coming, he knows that I have, and he has, then, we can fight each other. You cannot disarm me and armed Fulani man. The Federal Government is bias and unfair”.
“The failure of security is caused by the Federal Government. Maybe, I perceived that the president is not aware of this. If he is aware, he will stop it. I know Gen Muhammadu Buhari, as someone who is discipline but the people around him, the sycophants and the mediocre are not willing to let him know the pains Nigerians are going through. Mr president, in case you are listening to me, I want you to know that you promised us that you will be fair to all. You say that you will be for everybody and for nobody. And now, it is appears that you are for Fulani people because nothing is coming from you to give people confidence that you are their president. You are the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, you are not the president of Fulani. You are the president of everybody and I owe you a duty as a stakeholder in this nation to let you know that what is going on is wrong. This has the potential of dividing this country, which will not be in the interest of anyone. Some of us believe in the unity of this country. It is not everything I know as a governor, I depend on my lieutenants and you must depend on us. Mr president if anybody is deceiving you that all is well, it is not well with us here in Benue State and from what I can hear from other states, it is not well with Nigeria today. You must act fast before it is late”, he added.
The Governor condemned President Buhari for arresting and assaulting those who oppose Fulani, explaining, “I also heard about the press statement issued by the presidency when Ondo State Governor issued a seven day ultimatum that Fulani should leave the forest. The presidency came out swiftly and say that it is wrong for him to say that. But when people are killed in Benue, killed in Ondo, killed in Ekiti, killed in Taraba, killed in Zamfara, killed in Jigawa by these herdsmen and they come out to take full responsibility, the president does nothing. There is one Fulani socio-cultural organisation that came out and claimed responsibility, that they will do more. That they will mobilise Fulani from all over the place to come and take over Nigeria, that Nigeria is their ancestral land. The presidency did not say anything. But they quickly ordered the arrest of an activist (Sunday Igboho), who stood up to speak and to work with his people. What else will he do? When you see your people being killed, your people’s farms being razed down and eaten up by herdsmen’s cattle, what else will you do as a patriotic person of that community? It is just the same thing”
He stated, “The world terrorist index has described the Fulani as the 4th terrorist group in the world but up till today, the Federal Government is not bothered to declare herdsmen as a terrorist organisation and they have gone ahead to form different groups of Miyetti Allah and the Federal Government is romancing with them. The Federal Government comes out to defend them, anytime something happens to them, but when they cause pains in the lives of the other people, Federal Government will keep quiet. Federal Government has gone ahead to ban IPOB, why can they not ban Miyetti Allah? What did IPOB do that they went ahead and banned them? What about this one that Fulani are taking over everywhere under the watch of the presidency and they are not saying anything? What is the meaning of that? What are they trying to say? Some people are afraid to talk because EFCC, security agencies and ICPC will come after them. They did that to me and I went to court and won. They tried to impeach me but by the grace of God, I survived”.
“How can you say that the man must be arrested? What about Fulani that kill people, remove people’s eyes, give people gradual killing? Have you made attempt to arrest them? All these are all over the place, they are on social media. That is why I am calling on Mr President to act fast, otherwise, it will be too late and all of us will be consumed. We may wake up one morning and we will discovered that we don’t have a country called Nigeria again. And the only way to do is for our leader, the president to come in and act fast and behave like a president who is for everybody and for nobody. The way the presidency is behaving now, is a contradiction to what he told us and the oath of office that he took”, he concluded.
