He has accused Buhari of failing Nigerians throughout his two tenures as president.

The Benue State helmsman was reacting to a piece of news packaged as a ‘mockery’ by a presidential aide, Garba Shehu, over issues serenading Ortom’s failed senatorial bid.

Buhari had claimed, through his spokesman, that Benue people rejected their governor because of his bad performance in the state in the last eight years.

The president also accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor of frustrating all the efforts the Federal Government made towards solving the security situation in an insecurity-laden state dubbed ‘the Breadbasket of the Nation’ for its rich agricultural potentials.

•’Ortom, a failed gov, rejected by his people’

The presidential statement on Wednesday by Shehu alleged, among high-grade issues, that Ortom was incompetent, and that he is to be blamed for insecurity in his state.

The presidency absolved Buhari of any blame concerning the security situation in Benue.

It said, “Fortunately, the people of Benue State know the truth. After all, it is they who have suffered under Ortom’s “leadership”– if one can call it such.

“It is they who have experienced first-hand the mass killings, the torture, the litany of atrocities as Benue’s security situation plummeted even further. It is they who buried their loved ones while watching their careless, irresponsible, and incompetent governor politicise those freshly dug graves.”

The statement added, “And it is they who turned to the last privilege they had left: their democratic privilege, to resoundingly kick out Ortom and his so-called Peoples Democratic Party in favour of a new governor, Reverend Father Hyacinth Iornem Alia from Buhari’s party, the APC.”

Shehu’s copy followed incidents, the first, two weeks ago, when gunmen attacked an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in the Guma local government area of Benue State, reportedly killing more than 30 people, including a pregnant woman.

The killing came a few days after an unconfirmed number of persons were also murdered in an attack by gunmen in Umogidi village of Entekpa-Adoka district, Otukpo LGA.

Also in March, it was reported that about 50 persons were allegedly killed by suspected herders who invaded communities in Kwande LGA of the state.

The spate of killings led to protests in Benue by angry youths who mounted roadblocks demanding an end to the insecurity.

Shehu said the president had taken steps to tackle the issue in Benue, but his efforts were frustrated by Ortom.

He disclosed that the Federal Government also established and funded a joint security operation, code-named, ‘Operation Whirl Stroke (OWS)’.

However, he said Ortom was not willing to engage with the project and accused the governor of endangering the security operatives with fake news and disinformation campaigns.

*Governor accuses President’s aide, Garba Shehu, of speaking for Fulani militia

But replying yesterday, Ortom noted that the president’s comment by a Buhari spokesperson was an indication that the current administration had been backing herdsmen who had been on a killing spree in Benue State.

In a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Nathaniel Ikyur, the Benue State governor said the president and his spokesperson, Shehu, “are in futile attempts to twist events and history in Benue State”.

Ortom alleged that the killings in Benue State by armed herdsmen had the backing of the Buhari-led administration.

The Benue State governor said, “It is common knowledge that the Commander-in-Chief, Buhari, has empowered and emboldened the Fulani pastoralists in their expansionist agenda, including killings.

“It is equally a known fact that President Buhari has failed woefully in securing Nigeria, and Benue State in particular.
“It is on record that Governor Samuel Ortom has repeatedly pleaded with the Buhari government to intervene in the incessant invasion of Benue State by Fulani militias.”

Ortom added, “The president, sadly, chooses to endorse the invasion and merely asks our people to learn to accommodate their neighbours who derive pleasure in killing and dispossessing them of their ancestral lands.

“What the Buhari administration has done to our people through the Fulani militants as confirmed by Shehu Garba is to spit on the graves of our compatriots mowed down needlessly by Fulani militia. We shall not forget these atrocities.

“Besides unleashing Fulani killers on our people, the Buhari government denied Benue State any meaningful project in the last eight years, including the repair of Federal Government roads in the state, which are now death traps.”

The Benue governor stated, “We have tried in vain to find out the offence of the Benue people, but we found none, except that our people are responsible, law-abiding citizens.”

Shehu had stated that the president also accused the PDP governor of frustrating all the efforts by the Federal Government made towards solving the security situation in Benue State.

Alluding to what it called Shehu’s infantile statement on the security situation in Benue State, the president said, “For the avoidance of doubt, Governor Samuel Ortom was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2019 to defend the interest of the people of Benue, and never to be a lackey in the hands of expansionists using every means to perpetrate evil against the Benue citizens.
“By Garba Shehu’s latest statement, the presidency has demonstrated that Governor Ortom is right when he consistently accused the APC-led federal government of complicity in the killings orchestrated against Benue people by the Fulani herdsmen as represented by  Miyetti Allah Kautal, Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM and other Fulani socio-cultural groups.

“If the Presidency can find it convenient to lay the blame of the massive killings that the Fulani have continued to perpetrate in Benue on Governor Ortom, what can it say of the massacre and kidnappings in Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, and President Buhari’s home state of Katsina among other states where the killing of innocent citizens has continued unchallenged?

“The Presidency has shown in this recent public statement that they have placed cows above human lives and made the animals urinate on the graves of those they massacred in Benue and elsewhere across the country. If not, they wouldn’t have gone to town to mock the slain in their graves.

It is an insult to the Benue people including those who killed and butchered children, the maimed, raped, and abused women, and the over two million people living under squalid conditions in Nigeria’s largest Internally Displaced Camps in the state.

The Presidency’s statement is a reckless stab by agents of genocide against the Benue people by blaming the victims.

“Let Garba Shehu and occupants of the current Presidential Villa be informed that the ongoing pogrom in Benue State is a designed plot by the Fulani against the Benue people to dispose of them their lands and these atrocities are well-documented. The perpetrators are also well-known to local and international authorities. Through this recent posturing, everyone is now aware that the perpetrators have the backing and sympathy of the Federal Government.

“The Presidency’s attempt to mock Governor Ortom over the loss of his senatorial seat and the PDP in the governorship has furthermore strengthened our 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.

“But let the Presidential spokesman remember that Governor Ortom is extremely grateful to the people of the state for always allowing him to serve them. As he has often quoted in Psalm 34:19.

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” The Governor stands for justice, equity, and fairness, and no amount of blackmail and impunity as orchestrated by the Buhari administration can make him change his advocacy against injustice and oppression.

“In fact, before the elections, Governor Ortom had publicly stated that he was ready to sacrifice his senatorial ambition for the sake of the survival of democracy where the likes of Garba Shehu and their collaborators would rather want it truncated.

“It is public knowledge that the 2023 elections were heavily rigged using some security operatives, money, federal might, and electronic means. Governor Ortom’s decision not to challenge the result of the Benue North West Senatorial election in court again points to the fact that he is not a selfish and desperate politician.

“Benue people are well aware that Governor Ortom has been a target of the Buhari presidency since 2017 when he boldly signed a law banning open grazing of livestock in the state.

“The governor has been subjected to many coordinated media attacks, probes, freezing of state accounts, and other punitive measures to frustrate and cripple his administration. While other states were given infrastructural loans, Benue under Governor Ortom was denied access to the funds. The same thing happened when the Benue State Government met all requirements to secure N42 billion to clear the backlog of salaries, pensions, and gratuity.”

Ortom also stressed, “In a nutshell, the presidency’s statement is the height of recklessness and gross insensitivity against the people of Benue. It is on record that Governor Ortom has given full cooperation to all layers of security agencies working in the state to help curtail the menace of the Fulani killing squad displacing various communities in the state and other internal security skirmishes.

“Between 2015 and this year, Governor Ortom has constantly held security meetings and gathered intelligence to support security agencies operating in the state. He has however consistently pointed out that the security agencies are grossly underfunded and deserve to be better equipped and motivated to tackle insecurity in the country.

“It is, therefore, laughable when Shehu ignorantly tries to whip up an unfounded lie against the governor.

“Governor Ortom is performing his duty as Governor of Benue State and will continue to do so until May 29, 2023, when he leaves office. We expect the outgoing president to also do what he was voted to do for Nigerians.

“Lastly, we are tempted to conclude that President Buhari was not aware of Garba Shehu’s statement, because if the President were aware, he would not have permitted his media aide to release a statement that rather indicts him as Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces for abdicating his constitutional duty of providing security to Benue State and other parts of the country, admitting failure and opting to blame a state governor.”