Former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has clarified that his criticisms of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration were not rooted in hatred but driven by his responsibility to protect the people of his state.
Speaking on Politics Today on Channels Television on Monday, Ortom said he had no personal grudge against the late former president or the Fulani ethnic group but was compelled to speak out due to the deadly security situation in Benue during Buhari’s tenure.
“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 welfare for my people,” he said.
The former governor came under public scrutiny during his time in office for his repeated and pointed attacks on the Buhari-led federal government over alleged inaction in the face of herdsmen attacks on communities in Benue.
“I couldn’t just watch and continue to bury people, and I had to voice out,” Ortom explained. “But I did not stop at that. My government was able to provide a solution which, in our thought, we felt would solve the problem.”
He accused the Buhari administration of failing to support or implement the solution his government proposed, which he said has allowed the crisis to persist.
Ortom also dismissed the widely-used term “herders-farmers crisis” to describe the violence in Benue and other parts of the Middle Belt, stating that what has been happening is far more sinister.
“These are not clashes,” he said. “These are well-planned attacks. The intruding herders storm villages, kill people, destroy farms, rape women, and commit all sorts of atrocities. That is not a crisis that is terrorism.”
