The Presidency of Nigeria has lambasted Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom over his recent comments on the killings in the country.
Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu while defending his principal on Wednesday he stressed that President Muhammadu Buhari has no connection with the killing of innocent Nigerians by criminals.
‘President Buhari does not kill people; he is not a cultist,‘ said the President’s media aide who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today which was monitored by Africa Daily News, New York.
A day before Shehu’s interview, Governor Ortom had criticised the present administration and described President Buhari as the worst when it comes to handling security matters.
Read Also: Grazing Routes: Ortom Threatens Legal Action Against Buhari
Governor Ortom, who also featured as a guest on Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, condemned the way in which some critical issues were being managed.
On the attacks by suspected herdsmen, the governor alleged that the President had an agenda to ‘fulanise’ the country.
He added that late former Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umar Yar’Adua, as Nigerian leaders of Fulani extraction, were better than President Buhari in terms of security.
But Shehu, in his response, dismissed all the claims by the governor. Rather, he described the President as one who is compassionate, just, and fair to all.
He believes the tolerance the President has shown towards the purported excesses of the governor is evidence of his description of the Nigerian leader.
The President’s spokesman also criticised Governor Ortom for his comments on the purported agenda to ‘fulanise’ the country.
‘All of the falsehoods he (Ortom) spreads, perhaps speak to his own character rather than that of the President,” he said. “The President’s wish is that open grazing should end, nobody wants it.
‘The President has shown extraordinary patience stomaching a lot of the garbage that Governor Ortom has been pouring about him. I am not sure that in the history of this country, there had been any president who would have taken all of the insults that Governor Ortom has been heaping on this President, and on the President’s directive, we have ignored him.’ he added.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
