Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on
Friday apologised to Nigerians and the people of the state for
supporting the election of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
Ortom stated this during his campaign tour of Wanune, in the Tarka Local Government Area of the state.
He called on residents of the area not
to vote for his predecessor, Senator George Akume, in the forthcoming
National Assembly elections but replace him with the Peoples Democratic
Party candidate, who is from a neighbouring local government area.
Speaking during his interactions with
leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria, at the NKST Church in
Wannune, Ortom said that he was following the footstep of former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had apologised to Nigerians.
The governor explained that he was doing
same because the President Buhari-led administration had not only
allegedly failed to live up to expectations but also condoned the
atrocities of Fulani herdsmen across the country.
“All complaints for the arrest and
prosecution of leaders of Fulani groups that sponsored the killing of
our people in the state and destruction of property fell on deaf ears.”
According to him, while Buhari’s
kinsmen, the late Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’adua, appointed
several Tiv people as ministers in their cabinets, the President had
allegedly appointed none, in spite of the fact that the ethnic group
which voted massively for him in 2015 was estimated to be the fourth
largest in the country.
The governor further alleged that the
Buhari administration had brought more hardship on Nigerians and people
of the state in different ways, pointing out that Nigerians could not
afford another four years of his leadership that would further plunge
them into more crises.
He, therefore, urged the people to
support his re-election as Governor and that of the presidential
candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as President, in the
forthcoming general elections.