Buhari's Cabal After Me, Ortom Cries Out

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has warned of attempt by certain cabal in the presidency to pitched him against President Muhammdu Buhari, who he alleged did not act on time when two Fulani socio cultural groups threatened and carried out attacks and killings in the state.

Ortom made this known on Monday when he campaigned in Konshisha Local Government Area of the state.

He stated that he has never attacked the personality of the president as insinuated by the spokesman of the president, Mallam Garba Shehu.

It will be recalled that Shehu alleged in the media that Ortom who’s presently campaigning for a second term in office claimed that President Buhari is trying to islamise Benue State.

However, Ortom, while fielding questions from journalists at Tse Agbaragba, described Shehu's statement as unfortunate, stressing that "I'm not sure it's coming from the president but from the presidency.

"In my campaigns, I have never insulted President Buhari, I have never made any hate speech against him at any given time. If I talk of Miyetti Allah claiming responsibility for the killings in Benue State, it came from them and it was before the media and everybody knew about it.

"If I talk about Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM) which did a press conference in Kano and proclaimed that the killings in Benue were a continuation of 1804 jihad, it didn't come from me, it came from them.

"I called for the arrest of these people because they were making hate speeches and displaying impunity over this country and I reported them to security agencies. I expected that these people should have been arrested. And I was just repeating that.

"Shehu cannot tell me where I'll go and do my campaigns. If I'm in the church I will also go to the mosque and respect the Muslims for who they are, and I respect the churches, that is the background I come from. I am a Christian.

"Can Shehu come and tell me where to campaign? He doesn't have the right, he is from APC and I am of the PDP and I'm campaigning to win election for my party and my presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, because I believe he will not keep a cabal in the villa.

"I am a man, I'm not a woman, that is why I respect the wife of the President who called all of us to come back that 'where are the men in this country.

"Should we allow the cabal in the Villa to ruin in this country? I'm not a coward, only a coward dies 20 times before his actual death. Time has come for us to say the truth in this country. Whether it is going to be with our lives, we should say it in order to save the country and save our democracy."

The governor, who also remarked on the arraignment of the Chief Judge of the Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, at the Court of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), describing it as sad, said: "Look at what is happening, looking at the issue of arraigning the CJN. This is impunity at its highest level. I always say that we must respect the rule of law that is the only way we can preserve ourselves and even the positions we hold.

"Anything outside that will result in impunity and when there is impunity you are inviting anarchy and when there is anarchy you don't know where it will lead us to.

"Look, nobody should be above the law, we should respect the law, the presidency should respect the law, I should respect the law, everybody should respect the law, that is the only way we can preserve this country because Nigeria belongs to all of us.”