FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo has urged the Federal Government to take proactive steps in ending the killings in Benue State or risk the consequences of burying more innocent Nigerians like those killed in the state.
Obasanjo, who made the statement on Saturday, during a surprise visit to Benue to condole with Governor Samuel Ortom and people of the state, described the incessant herdsmen’s attacks on innocent people as senseless.
According to him, the incessant killings of innocent persons are a strong indication that Nigeria is yet to get it right, saying nothing could be “worse than what we have seen here [graves] of innocent people who should not have died that have died.”
The former president’s visit came less than 24 hours to the scheduled visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to the state tomorrow.
The visit of the former president, however, did not last more than one and a half hours, as his flight touched down at the Makurdi airport around 9.30 a.m.
He was immediately driven to the graves of victims of herdsmen’s attacks, where he laid a wreath and returned to the airport to board his flight which took off around 10.59a.m.
Obasanjo, fielding questions, told newsmen that incessant killings of innocent people had shown that the country was yet to get it right.
According to him, “There is no doubt that we haven’t got it right, because whatever is behind this is not good at all.”
He described the Benue killings as “sad and beyond description,” while commiserating with the government and people of the state over the loss of innocent lives.
Chief Obasanjo said his visit to the graves to lay a wreath was to express his sorrow and sympathise with the government and families of the departed souls.
“I am here to pay a condolence visit and share the sadness of Benue people with them. I felt coming to the gravesite and laying a wreath will express my sorrow and my sympathy and empathy with the families, governor and all the people of the state and indeed all Nigerians without any exception.”
Obasanjo told newsmen that he was shocked like other Nigerians to hear of more killings in the state after the mass burial of victims.
According to him, “hearing that aside the 73 buried here, more than 80 others have been killed is even more shocking to me and to all Nigerians.”
He called on the Federal Government to find out the reasons for “the senseless killings” so that a lasting solution could be provided.
“We must get to the root of this; until then, we will be assuming what is not assumable. We must know why it is happening and why we must put an end to it. Someone must take responsibility to put an end to it.
“We cannot talk of a free, secure country where we will want development to take place and investors to come to be suffering in this type of senselessness. I do hope that there would be an end to this.”
Chief Obasanjo advised the state governor, Ortom, not to give up, urging him to work with the people of likeminds in the state and have the interest of the state and Nigeria at heart so as to find solution to the problem.
The former president explained that he left Maiduguri for Benue after he discovered that Governor Ortom, who should have attended the meeting of stakeholders on Zero Hunger, was absent.
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