Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom is employing divide and rule strategy for his selfish interest instead of collaborating with the Federal Government to solve the security problem in the state, the Presidency has said.
This was disclosed in a statement by presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu on Thursday.
Ortom had on Wednesday accused the President of siding with Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslims, despite their being allegedly responsible for the killings in Benue State. He had said this after the killing of seven people at a internally displaced people’s camp along Lafia-Makurdi road by gunmen.
But Buhari said “the lives of fellow citizens should not be desecrated by deploying them in political diatribe which unfortunately appeared to be the intent of the string of emotional attacks and blame laid at the doors of the President for those killings by Governor Ortom.
“The strength of our country lies in our diversity in faith, culture, and traditions and attempts to sharpen the divide between northern and southern Nigeria, between Muslims and Christians, and between communities that have coexisted for centuries should be frowned upon and resisted.
“Benue under the Ortom administration ought to cooperate with the Federal Government in the implementation of a number of national strategies programs in addressing underlying issues militating against peace, progress and development. This can still get done when the interest of the people is placed above all other interests. A government voted into office by the people, should treat the people as its masters and not as its servants”
The President consoled with the families the citizens who lost their loved ones in the recent spate of killings in Benue State.
He promised that those responsible for inciting, sponsoring or are proven to be abettors of these atrocities would be made to face the law.
