- Say enough is enough
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday condemned the attack on Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, by gunmen suspected to be herdsmen.
Ortom narrowly escaped death on Saturday when his convoy was attacked. His security details repelled the attack.
The governor was coming back to Makurdi from his farm when the attack occurred.
On Sunday at a thanksgiving service at the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the state capital, Ortom, who blamed Fulani bandits for the attack wondered what will happen to ordinary Nigerians if a governor cannot safely go to his farm.
On Sunday, his colleagues elected on the PDP platform warned that any harm to him will lead to anarchy.
A statement by the PDP Governors Forum chairman, Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto State, strongly condemned the attack.
The group challenged the Federal Government to be alive to its responsibility of securing the lives and livelihoods of our people, however low or high.
The statement reads:
The PDP-Governors Forum has received with shock the assassination attempt on the Governor of Benue State, H.E. Dr Samuel Ortom.We wish therefore to warn that any attempt to harm any Nigerian will be viewed by the Forum as an attempt on all of us.
We believe strongly that any dispute or perceived dispute should be and must be resolved amicably without resort to violence. Nigeria is not a Banana Republic, even though certain retrogressive elements and centrifugal forces are trying to consign Nigeria into a failed state.
It remains the primary responsibility of government, especially the Federal government, who have monopoly of the coercive forces of state, to secure the lives and livelihoods of our people, however low or high. Every Nigerian deserves equal protection of the laws. Every citizen is entitled to freedom of speech and free exercise of all rights guaranteed in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, subject only to law.
Nigeria is still a democracy and a nation of laws and not men.
Nobody, or group however highly placed should take the laws into their hands, even though some highly placed Federal government ministers seem to have surrendered to the nefarious activities of miscreants and mischief makers, bent on destabilising the nation. Self help is an invitation to anarchy and must be nipped in the bud.
The PDP GOVERNORS are solidly united and are behind His Excellency, Governor Dr Samuel Ortom and will do the utmost to defend the rights and prerogatives of the Benue people who elected him.
We expect the security agencies and other authorities of state to investigate this matter swiftly and thoroughly and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Enough is clearly enough.
