Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Sunday expressed deep concern over the excruciating security and economic hardship Nigerians are passing through under the watchful eyes of the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led goverment of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He pointedly accused the ruling government of leading the nation to the Golgotha.
Governor Ortom was particularly worried about the growing standard of living which he said is daily going beyond the reach of the common man; as well as the activities of terrorists and bandits which he noted have become so emboldened that they operate even in the daytime.
The governor was reacting to allegation by a chieftain of the APC in the state and an aspirant for the Ado/ Ogbadibo/Okpokwu House of Representatives seat, Mr. Philip Agbese that he (Ortom) “has turned Benue into Afghanistan” by impoverishing the masses through non payment of workers’ salaries and entitlements to pensioners.
He said the outing Agbese depicts the attitude of political jobbers who grab at anything to survive, and described him as been “blind like the Biblical Bartimaeus” bereft of the challenges affecting his administration.
He questioned, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Nathaniel Ikyur, why the APC chieftain would allege that he has turned the state into Afghanistan, saying: “It is Nigeria, currently led by President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC that can be likened to Afghanistan, which the outgoing United Nations Representative named as the first country enmeshed in global terrorism followed Iraq.
“What then becomes of Nigeria under APC which they have turned into a killing field? Here, there is no sanctity of lives as terrorists reign freely from state to state
Our future development is threatened as school children are being kidnapped daily with reckless abandon. It is no longer safe for anyone to travel freely on our roads.
Is this not clear that the APC is leading Nigeria to the Golgotha?” On allegation of non payment of salaries to workers and entitlements of pensioners as claimed by the APC chieftain, Governor Ortom said the issue of delay in payment of salaries is a national problem, he was not resting on his oars to clear the salary backlogs and end the pension crises which he noted was occasioned at the height of the inflation era under the APC led administration.
