Again, Benue Gov Ortom slams Buhari over economy, security

Controversial Governor of Benue State, Mr. Samuel Ortom, has again called on President of the country, Muhammadu Buhari, to hand over to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The call, he said, was informed by his discovery that the president ‘lacks the capacity’ to rescue the country from the worsening economic and security predicaments confronting the nation.

The DEFENDER reports that Ortom was talking of worsening economy and security amidst emerging international accolades that Nigeria, under Muhammadu Buhari, has received lately over positive results coming from the administration’s effort not only to revive but diversify the nation’s economy for sustainable growth.

Recently, the international terrorism index of Nigeria dropped from sixth to fourth in ranking to say that, with serious efforts of the Nigerian Armed forces and other security agencies, insecurity in the country particularly Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorism and activities of bandits in the North West of the country have gone done considerably, except in the South East, where per adventure due to seeming support of leaders in the region Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN) terrorists have refused to reduce as the situation now is in Northern Nigeria.

Despite these positive reports coming from and around Nigeria being told locally and internationally, Governor Samuel Ortom, who spoke Monday during an interactive session with newsmen in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, among among comments he made, said:

“Since the inception of our country Nigeria, even before the independence, we have never witnessed this kind of nepotism that is going on in our country. We have never witnessed this level of disunity in our country. We have never seen this level of insecurity and we have never seen this kind of economic downturn the way we have it today.

“I am a grassroots person, so I appreciate the feelings of the people out there. I feel so sad and I also pity the President of our country because those surrounding him are deceiving him and he is not aware of the plight of our people. The basic responsibility of any government we were told is the provision of security for lives and property. The level of insecurity in the country today is worrisome.

“Those people who are complacent and living in their comfort zones without looking at the reality of what is happening in our country today should have a rethink. It is really unfortunate that I have over 1.5million IDPs in Benue state out of the projected seven million population that I have in Benue, and more than 80 per cent of the IDPs are farmers that earned us the appellation of the food basket of the nation.”Today they are in IDPs camps suffering. As if that is not enough, everyday you wake up to the news that Fulanis with the consent of the federal government have decided to make life unbearable for my people in Benue State.

“How can we allow our country go on with this level of impunity by the APC led Federal Government? How can they allow these Fulani herdsmen to come and murder, kill and rape our women and children? So, the Federal Government has completely failed and I want to call on our President, Muhammadu Buhari to accept the fact that he has failed this country and I want to advise him to honourably resign as President of Nigerian.

“He can resign and hand over to his Vice to handle the affairs of this country otherwise this country is going down. No wonder in 2014 I saw a video clip where the President promised Nigerians that his APC government was going to take Nigeria from the top to bottom.”And today if nothing is done, if the president does not rise up to the responsibility of taking this country out of the bottom to the top, we are going underneath.

“Those who are keeping quiet should continue, but I have said my beat. They can insult me and also send the EFCC after me and declare all the things we do right as wrong. But I have nothing to hide, if you come after me I will approach the courts because I have nothing to hide.

“I will always stand for truth, equity, fairness and justice and that is all. This country belongs to all of us. It is not about a Fulani President or President Buhari. We have had Fulani presidents who I adjudged as the best we have ever had. We had President Shagari, a Fulani man from the caliphate.

“He was a good leader. He provided security for lives and property. We had President Yar’adua a Fulani man from Katsina state. He did very well and till tomorrow nobody has provided the solution to the Niger Delta crisis more than President Yar’adua a Fulani man.

“The issue today is about incompetence, it is about non-performance, it is about barefooted leadership, it is about lame-duck, it is about somebody without a vision and direction to lead our country.

“So I call on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign. If he wants APC to continue he should hand over to his Vice to take up from there. Anybody who is deceiving President Buhari telling him that he has performed well is a liar,” he said.