FG Paying Lip Service To Security Challenges - Ortom

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has accused the federal government of paying lip service to security challenges bedeviling the country. 

The governor who spoke with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja said Nigerians are under siege and if urgent steps were not taken, terrorists would overrun the country in no distant time. 

He stated that over 1,700 people have been killed in Benue State since the state of insecurity under the Buhari administration deteriorated, stressing that out of that number, over one hundred were security operatives serving in the state. 

Governor Ortom said about 1.5 million persons were still in Internally Displaced Person's camps across the state with no hope of returning to their ancestral homes soon. 

He said as a patriotic Nigerian, he has the responsibility to speak out against any threat to the country's sovereignty, insisting that those keeping silent in the face of evil perpetrated by bandits and kidnappers were worse than the actual perpetrators. 

The Governor stated that the APC government did not only fail Nigerians but has also appeared helpless in the fight against insecurity and has shown that it has no capacity to fix the economy, agriculture, and education. 

He called on Nigerians to join hands with the rebranded PDP and collectively address the yearnings of the people. 

Ortom particularly admonished journalists not to toe the path of sycophancy but to always be on the side of truth and justice in order to add value to the country for posterity. 

He alleged that a cabal has prevented him from meeting the president over the issue of insecurity which was why he has sought an alternative way to present his position to Nigerians on the security situation.