Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has warned Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari not to create bad blood between him and the President.
Governor Ortom stated this while reacting to the statement issued by the presidency.
The presidency had on Sunday accused Governor Samuel Ortom of hate speech, stating that the governor had been campaigning in churches and inciting people of the state by accusing President Buhari of planning to Islamise the state.
The governor who spoke to newsmen at Tse Gbaragba, headquarters Konshisha local government area of the state noted that the statement by the presidency was a reflection of the cabal earlier mentioned by the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari.
Ortom described the statement as ‘unfortunate’, explaining that he was only re-echoing the earlier statement by Miyeitti Allah and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM which had earlier claimed to continue with the 1804 Jihad.
The governor said that neither the presidency nor Shehu would tell him where to go and campaign.
“I read the statement, it was an unfortunate statement, I’m sure it’s not coming from Mr President but it is coming from the presidency.
“I’m sure that statement from Garba Shehu is coming from the cabal that the wife of the President is complaining about. It cannot be from the President.
“In my campaigns, I have never insulted President Buhari, I have never made any hate speech against him at any given time. If I talk of Miyetti Allah claiming responsibility for the killings in Benue State, it came from them and it was before the media and everybody knew about it.
“If I talk about FUNAM who did a press conference in Kano and proclaimed that the killings in Benue were a continuation of 1804 jihad, it didn’t come from me, it came from them.
“I called for the arrest of these people because they were making hate speeches and displaying impunity over this country and I reported them to security agencies, I expected that these people should have been arrested. And I was just repeating that.
“Garba Shehu cannot tell me where I’ll go and do my campaigns. If I’m in churches, I will also go to the Mosque and respect the Muslims for who they are and I respect the churches that is background I come from, I am a Christian.
“Can Garba Shehu come and tell me where to campaign? He doesn’t have the right, he is from APC and I am of the PDP and I’m campaigning to win the election for my party and my presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar because I believe he will not keep a cabal in the Villa.
“I am a man, I’m not a woman, that is why I respect the wife of the President who called all of us to come back that ‘where are the men in this country.”
“Should we allow the cabal in the Villa to ruin in this country? I’m not a coward, it is a coward that will die twenty times before his actual death. Time has come for us to say the truth in this country. Whether it is going to be with our lives, we should say it in order to save the country and save our democracy.
“Look at what is happening, looking at the issue of arraigning the CJN, this is impunity at its highest level. I always say that we must respect the rule of law, that is the only way we can preserve ourselves and even the positions we hold.
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“Anything outside that will result in impunity and when there is impunity you are inviting anarchy and when there is anarchy you don’t know where it will lead us to.
“Look, nobody should be above the law, we should respect the law, the Presidency should respect the law. I should respect the law, everybody should respect the law, that is the only way we can preserve this country because Nigeria belongs to all of us.
“All of us are stakeholders and we cannot fold our hands and see things being destroyed by individuals, I have no time for that, Garba Shehu should go and concentrate on his job and he should stop trying to create hatred between me and the President because I have no issues with the President.
“I talk about issues of the campaign. And if you talk about hate speech they should go and arrest FUAM and Miyetti Allah members who made that statement and going around doing all sorts of illegal things, creating hate and confusion among Nigerians and nobody is out to say anything rather you hear agents of government come out to give backing to Miyetti Allah.
“Why should I keep quiet? I will not keep quiet unless Justice, equity and fairness is done by the Federal Government. It is my responsibility and the people of Benue State to make laws as long as it does not conflict with the provisions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“But it is also the responsibility of the Federal Government to enforce any law whether by the states or federal government, so what is my offence,” Governor Ortom fumed.
and then