Tuesday, July 22, 2025 - A former Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, has dismissed claims that he hated the late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari over his government’s handling of the security in the North Central state.
The chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party stated this on
Monday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Ortom stated that he only criticised Buhari’s government for
not doing enough to address the security challenges in his state at the time.
The former Benue governor defended his actions, saying he
had to speak out to protect his people.
He said, “I didn’t hate Buhari, I didn’t hate his
government, I didn’t hate any Fulani man. All I was standing for was that I was
elected to provide security and provide for the welfare of my own people.
“I was just doing my job, and I did accuse the last
government for not doing enough to curb the security challenges that we had.
“I couldn’t just watch and continue to bury people, and I
had to voice out but I did not stop at that. My government was able to provide
a solution that, in our thought, we felt would solve this problem.”
The former governor said the insecurity problem still
persisting in Benue State wouldn’t have existed if the Buhari administration
had cooperated with him and adopted the solution he proposed to end it.
Ortom said he was frustrated under the Buhari administration
and raised the alarm several times, stating that the Ruga ranching programme
and similar ones proposed by the government to end the problem were merely a
camouflage.
He insisted that there is no such thing as a herders-farmers
crisis in Nigeria, saying that, instead, the intruding herders storm villages
to kill, destroy farms, rape women, and commit other atrocities.
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