Benue State governor, Samuel
Ortom has made another shocking revelation on the reasons for his exit from the
All Progressives Congress, APC.
Ortom in a statewide broadcast on
Wednesday, said contrary to the rumours being peddled by his political enemies
that his administration had done nothing, he had embarked on monumental
developmental projects across the 23 LGAs of the state.
The full text of his speech
below:
My dear good and patriotic People
of Benue State.
I am sure you are aware of the
recent political developments in our State. I took time to address some of the
issues in my phone in Radio program and our meeting with the media community on
Monday.
Our challenges are not over. The
wave of illegality with impunity is here with us. On Monday, the impeached
speaker of the Benue state House of Assembly, Hon. Terkimbi Ikyange, along with
seven members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the house created a
scandalous scene.
They were escorted to the
Assembly by heavily armed policemen in several trucks to perpetrate the level
of impunity we have never seen before in this state. The mission appears to be
the second phase of the deliberate destabilization of our dear state after the
Fulani herdsmen concerted invasion, killings and destruction.
All these are coming under the
veil of a plan to impeach some opposition governors including the
democratically elected governor of Benue State. The ultimate objective of the
grand conspiracy is the destabilization of the entire Middle Belt and other
parts of the country for the purpose of conquest and occupation.
22 out of the 30 members of the
State assembly sat and changed their leadership. This is in accordance with the
provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as
amended) as well as the Standing Rules of the House.
The 22 members approached the
Makurdi High Court, sought and obtained an injunction restraining the former
leaders from parading themselves as leaders of the house. The restraining order
also covered the police and Department of State Services (DSS).
They were restrained from
occupying the premises of the assembly and interfering with members lawful
duties. Both the impeached speaker who was also suspended for six months, and
other leaders mobilized the police and blatantly disobeyed the court order.
In disobedience to the court
order, the police prevented the 22 members from getting into the house premises
while they escorted the 8 members right into the chambers for illegal sitting
without the Clerk or his Deputy. They did not also form a quorum for the
sitting.
However, in that sitting,
illegality became the order of the day. These included the purported suspension
of the 15 members and passing a resolution to serve an impeachment notice on
me. It is clear that this impunity with illegality is dead on arrival. You can
see the wide spread condemnations, from President Muhammadu Buhari, right
across the country and beyond.
Having failed to achieve their
anti-Benue objectives so far, the next phase is likely to be the unleashing of
massive Fulani militia to embark on more devastating attacks and killings in
the state. The most unfortunate aspect is that some sons of the state including
a serving senator have been recruited and mobilized to lead this phase.
As I earlier alerted the people,
EFCC is now probing the state Security vote. So far, I am the only governor in
Nigeria whose Security vote is being investigated by EFCC. Recently, the
Presidential spokesman Mr. Femi Adesina, said on Channels Television and I
quote “I doubt, world over, if any government would come to say this is how
much we have spent on security, because can you quantify the amount of one life?
It is not something that any government will begin to disclose”.
Why should Benue case be
different if not persecution? If the EFCC wanted a genuine investigation of
security vote spending they should have started from the Presidency right
across the 36 States. If their focus was on Benue State they should have
started from 1999. But this is not the case.
With the enormous security
challenges in the State since my assumption of office it is surprising that any
one would expect me to do nothing but keep the security vote in the safe. The
security vote spending being investigated spans from 2015 to 2018, a period of
grave security challenges in the State. I reiterate that the investigation is a
clear case of persecution. I have not misappropriated, diverted or stolen any
money. I have nothing to hide. I assure that the investigators can find nothing
incriminating against me.
My dear Benue people, as your
Governor, I swore to respect and protect the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, and that is what I have been doing. Needless to say I have
been performing my role creditably well as governor. In spite of our challenges
especially insecurity instigated by Fulani herdsmen invasion and financial
crunch, we have constructed roads and bridges across the state. We have
mobilized Contractors to site on 11 roads, two of which have been completed.
These are Oshigbudu-Obagaji and
Zaki- Biam- Gbeji Roads. There is ongoing work on several other roads including
Origbo-Imande Akpu-Gbajimba and Mobile Barracks-Yaikyo Roads. We have over 100
ongoing rural access roads with many of them completed, and 43 completed
electricity projects with several still ongoing. We have 740 primary school
projects with 60 percent completion. We have renovated Secondary schools
including Government Girls Secondary School and GovernmentCollege both in
Makurdi.
We have improved the facilities
at the College of Health Sciences of the Benue State University, Makurdi which
led to the graduation of five sets of 175 doctors after 12 years of stagnation.
We have renovated and re-opened the School of Nursing and Midwifery as well as
College of Health Technology Agasha which have now received full accreditation
and resumed academic activities.
In addition, it is worthy of note
that our School of Nursing is now affiliated to Benue State University as a
degree awarding institution. We have constructed 42 Primary Health Care Centres
fully equipped and handed over to communities and you are using them in your
various communities. Similarly, we have constructed Enterprise Development and
Innovation centers popularly called Skills Acquisition centers in Gbajimba, Apa,
Agila and Makurdi. All these are completed.
An ultra-modern Deputy Governor’s
Office has been completed and is being occupied. In Partnership with
International Development agencies we have over 800 water schemes providing
water in Benue communities. In the area of education, health, poverty
alleviation and infrastructure, we have done well and it is left for you to
judge.
In Agriculture and agro allied
industries we have also performed creditably well. We have made fertilizer
easily available at subsidized prices. We have renovated and equipped
laboratories at Akperan Orshi College of Agricuture, Yandev. Agricultural
productivity has improved. In partnership with the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) we have developed 35 kilometres of access roads
in Five Local Governments and four Aggregation centres in Logo, Guma, Gwer East
and Ogbadibo.
We have completed Rice Processing
Centres in Gwer East and Otukpo Local Government Areas. We have also completed
Garri Processing and Packaging plants in Agatu and Ohimini Local Government
Areas. We have Sesame Seed Cleaning and Packaging plant in Oju, and we
completed the one in Daudu which was inherited from the past Adminstration. We
have Soyabean Cleaning and Packaging Plant in Wannune, Orange Cleaning,
Packaging and Juice making Factory in Ushongo and Yandev, Gboko. How can anyone
say we have not performed given our enormous challenges?
My challenge has been payment of
salaries which is a result of the N69 Billion I inherited as arrears of salaries,
pensions and gratuities as well as another N70 Billion commitment on contracts
and other obligations. Benue State also has very low Internally Generated
Revenue (IGR) but has the third highest salary bill in the country.
It is surpassed by only Lagos and
Rivers States. During the recession we used two months allocation to pay one
month. However, from January this year, we have faithfully paid each month up
to June and by next week, July salaries will be paid. But for Benue State
University staff, their salaries are paid up to date. We have repeatedly
assured the Benue people that we are sourcing funds to pay arrears of salaries,
pensions and gratuity.
I will continue to do my best to
pay because I know that a worker deserves his wage. I have also directed the
reinstatement of workers who were wrongly included on the list of ghost
workers. I am totally committed to meeting the yearnings and aspirations of my
people. Democracy is nothing more than doing what majority of people want their
leaders to do.
May I call on all of you to
resist any attempt by any person or group of persons to destabilize our State.
How can eight opposition members, including the suspended former Speaker of the
State House of Assembly, suspend 22 members? Does this make sense? This is pure
illegality and impunity which must not be allowed. Yesterday, the police,
acting on “directives from above” also chased away staff of the Assembly who
reported for work. The action is flagrant flouting of a subsisting court order.
This is unacceptable.
I am calling on His Excellency,
President Muhammadu Buhari, to protect the democracy that brought him to power
by directing the Police and other security agencies to respect the rule of law
for the survival of democracy in Nigeria.
I say this because the President
is the ultimate head of all security agencies in the country. I call on our
traditional and religious leaders, civil society organizations, Mass media,
Unions and all people of conscience, who love democracy to help avert the
emerging impunity in our beloved state. Impunity is dangerous and destructive.
Its negative effects on people and institutions can be very far reaching. If
unchecked, its unexpected consequences will consume all, including those
deploying it as an instrument of power.
My fellow patriots. I have
committed no crime. Today I am facing persecution just because I love my
people. I am being persecuted because I am a true democrat. I am giving you
concrete dividends of democracy. You asked for the Open Grazing Prohibition and
Ranches Establishment Law 2017 to regulate the relationship between farmers and
herders in the State which I obliged.
Now that the Ranching Law is in
place, the enemies of our State are out to harass and blackmail us. I assure
you that we will not be deterred. What exactly is wrong in asking the people of
Benue to ranch their cattle? The world is not waiting for us. If we don’t ranch
now, we will be forced to do so soon because there will be no land to practice
open grazing anywhere in Nigeria.
What is wrong in changing party?
When I left PDP some years ago to join APC, I was exercising my democratic
rights. I have left APC back to PDP where I served for over 12 years at various
times as executive committee member. I left as a Minister in the PDP government
and joined APC but I was not persecuted.
Permit me to call on you, my dear
people of Benue state to remain prayerful, calm, and law abiding. As I have
always told you “Though the giants may be on the way to hinder, God will surely
give us victory”.
Long live the Federal Republic of
Nigeria,
Long Live Benue State,
Long live the good people of
Benue State.
Thank you.
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