VP denies receiving letters from Governor Ortom over herdsman crises
Osinbajo denied the claims saying neither him nor the other parties the governor claimed to have alerted got any letters on the situation.
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In a statement by the VP's spokesman, Laolu Akande, Osinbajo expressed shock over the governor’s claims, which he described as a “terrible falsehood”.
“It will be a terrible falsehood to suggest that the VP was ever informed by the governor or anyone else of the imminence of the killing of citizens of our country in those or any other local governments in Benue state,” Osinbajo said.
Continuing, Osinbajo said: “Governor Ortom wrote to the Vice President, then Acting President, on 7th June 2017 protesting a newspaper publication where the leadership of Miyetti Allah was reported to have stated that it was opposed to the Open Grazing Prohibition law of the state and that they would mobilize to resist the law.
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“The had written to the Vice President on the 5th of June 2017 on the same law protesting several sections of the law.
“The governor went on to say that the leadership of Miyetti Allah should be arrested because they used words such as “wicked, obnoxious and repressive,” to describe the law, and because these were utterances that are capable of undermining the peace…”
Governor Ortom's claims
Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom had saidhe alerted President Muhammadu Buhari, VP Yemi Osinbajo, and the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of the planned attacks by herdsmen but they allegedly ignored it.
Meanwhile Osinbajo denied the claims saying neither him nor the other parties the governor claimed to have alerted got any letters on the situation.
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Osinbajo explained that Ortom wrote him a letter dated June 7, 2017, protesting the opposition and resistance of Miyetti Allah to the anti-grazing law.
Osinbajo added that he had also received a letter from the leadership of Miyetti Allah on their reservations about the law.
He said upon receiving the letter, he met with Ortom to discuss the security issues in the state, and ordered security agencies to be on the alert.
On a letter warning the state of impending attacks
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The VP noted that there was no mention of any threats of attacks from the herdsmen in the letter written to him by Ortom.
“The Vice President subsequently met with the Governor, discussed the matter and the security situation in the State and then ordered law enforcement agencies to be on the alert to prevent any attacks or violence. This was in June 2017.
“In the said letter written by the governor, there was no mention of any threat to any specific one of the 23 local governments of Benue state, so the best the law enforcement agencies could do even then was to await information or intelligence of an imminent attack. None came.
“Since then the VP has held several meetings with the including a visit to the state on the 6th of September, last year at the behest of Mr President during the tragic floods in the state last year.
“At all such meetings, the vice-president discussed the security situation of the state with the governor.
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“Following that, the then acting president convened a major national security retreat which was attended by all state governors, service chiefs and heads of security agencies. The retreat featured very detailed discussions on the herdsmen/ farmers’ clashes.
“To the best of our knowledge, neither nor the Federal Government was aware of the imminence of the cowardly attack on Logo and Guma on the 1st of January, and therefore any suggestion that the president or the vice-president ignored the state governor’s warning is both absolutely false and certainly misleading,” he said.
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