Benue Group Berates Atiku Over Attack On Ortom

A group, MINDA Leaders of Thought has described the recent accusation of ethnic profiling by the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, against the Benue State governor Samuel Ortom as baseless, reprehensible and condemnable.

During a political parley organised by the leading northern groups at Arewa House in Kaduna State, Atiku was quoted saying, “I had a big quarrel with Governor Ortom on his accusation of Fulani people. I am a Fulani man, why should you categorise all Fulani; we have to improve ways and manner we look after our livestock. I am angry with Samuel Ortom for profiling Fulani as bandits and terrorists.”

In a reaction yesterday, the group lamented such statement from a political figure like Atiku, who claims to be pan-Nigerian, in a nation battling with ethnic fragility. It blasted Atiku for castigating a sitting governor who has been globally recognized as a model in the fight against the annihilation of Nigerians by marauding pastoralists.

In a statement signed by the chairman, Engr Samuel Utoo and secretary Hon Charles Torbunde it lamented what would become Benue’s fate if PDP clinches power at the centre and the presidential candidate is harbouring such deep-seated animosity against their governor.

According to the group, “The MINDA Leaders of Thought have taken exception to the public exhortation and profiling of Governor Ortom who has been globally recognized as a model in the fight against the annihilation of Nigerians by marauding pastoralist Fulani not only in Benue State.

“Why did Alhaji Atiku fail his emotional balance by contextually dovetailing a general situation, which had more public appeal, into subjective personalism with Governor Ortom as a target? The MINDA Leaders of Thought finds such baseless outburst and accusation unfounded, reprehensible and condemnable especially coming from a political figure laying claim to Pan Nigerianism, a nation with trappings of ethnic fragility.

“Alhaji Atiku’s outburst is comprehensively a product of bad taste and unfounded malice that is drenched in ethnic chauvinism against an ethnic group that looks up to him as a protective shield, having been accorded the rear privilege of an honorific chieftaincy title of ‘Zege Mule u Tiv’, the Paramount Shade of the Tiv people.”

The MINDA Leaders of Thought said they condemned this open attack on Governor Ortom, whose people-oriented position on Open Grazing and Ranches Establishment Law Is celebrated even in developed climes as the most acceptable method of animal husbandry, as opposed to the current trend which is archaic, out dated and anachronistic in the 21th Century.