.Buhari’s silence over attempt on Benue gov’s life calls for concern – PDP
.Don’t politicise attack on Ortom, Garba Shehu replies
Main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the Presidency, on Sunday, traded words over last Saturday’s attack on Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
While the PDP expressed concern over President Muhammadu Buhari’s alleged silence over Saturday’s attempt on the life of Ortom, the Presidency, in a swift reply, warned politicians, apparently in the opposition fold, not to play unnecessary politics with the incident.
Several Nigerians had expressed shock over Saturday’s attack on Ortom’s convoy in Makurdi, Benue capital, by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, but until the PDP said President Buhari’s silence called for concern, the Presidency had kept mum on the incident.
Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen had opened fire on Ortom’s convoy while returning from his farm on Saturday.
Many Nigerians in their reactions to the incident, had urged the Federal Government to tackle the worsening insecurity in the country.
But PDP criticised President Buhari for delaying his response to the incident.
The main opposition party, in a statement issued earlier on Sunday, also alleged that there was a plot by the ruling All Progressives Congress to cause widespread violence in the country.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said in the statement, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alerts the nation of a grand plot by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use acts of banditry and electoral violence to disrupt our democratic order and disintegrate the nation, having realized that they have been rejected and can no longer win elections in our country.
“The party asserts that the silence of the APC and the Buhari Presidency to the attack and assassination attempt on Benue State Governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, by bandits, who were reported as killer herdsmen, calls for serious concern.
“The PDP also stressed that the silence of the APC and the Buhari Presidency to the violence unleashed by APC thugs, leading to the killing of two innocent Nigerians and a police officer, in the Ekiti State bye-election at the weekend and the postponement of the election, only goes to show that the APC is all out to derail our democracy just because they have been rejected by Nigerians.
“Our party holds that such disposition in the face an assassination attempt on a democratically elected governor by bandits as well as killing of innocent Nigerians and a law enforcement officer by suspected APC thugs amounts to endorsing acts of violence and assault against our democratic order, sovereignty and corporate existence as a nation.
“It is the belief of our party that such silence on an assassination attempt on Governor Ortom is portentous given that the attack came on the heels of his outspokenness in exposing those allegedly behind the incessant attacks on communities in the state and demanding that the Federal Government should live up to its responsibility on the protection of life and property in the state.
“The PDP invites Nigerians to note how the APC and its leaders have been patronizing bandits, terrorists and kidnappers and even justifying their acts of violence against innocent Nigerians while providing cover for the thugs they use in their plot to derail our democratic order.”
Don’t politicise attack on Ortom, Garba Shehu replies
But presidential spokesman, in a swift reply to the PDP’s allegation against Buhari, warned the opposition party against politicising the incident.
Quoting President Buhari, Shehu, in the statement, warned politicians not to take advantage of Saturday’s attack on Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State.
President Buhari, in the statement on Sunday night, also condemned the attack on Ortom, asking security operatives to carry out a thorough investigation.
Buhari spokesman, Shehu’s statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari strongly condemns attack on Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, saying the string of brutal attacks on individuals and communities in the state, with the latest one targeting the governor, was unacceptable.
“The President welcomes the dispatch of a high level team of crack investigators to the state from the Police headquarters in Abuja, urging the officers to uncover who, or whatsoever, was behind the attacks and bring them to justice.
“In expressing his sympathies, and that of the government of the federation to Governor Ortom and all Benue indigenes, President Buhari said the unfortunate incident must not be politicized, reiterating that an attack on one Nigerian is an attack on all Nigerians.
“The President directed the Police to undertake a thorough investigation into the incident involving the governor and into all such incidents affecting individuals and communities in the state.
“Let there be open and transparent investigation and whoever is linked to it should be caught and be made to face the law.”