Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom has revealed why he ended rift with his Bauchi counterpart, Bala Mohammed stating that they decided to sheath their sword and find better ways of resolving issues rather than bashing eachother on social media.
Both Governors had been at each other throats before now after Governor Mohammed declared his support for armed herders and accused Governor Ortom of instigating hatred for herders in the country.
Irked by the position of Governor Mohammed, Governor Ortom termed him a member of the terrorist groups tormenting the country.
However, speaking yesterday in Makurdi after arriving from Port Harcourt where the Governors of Rivers and Adamawa states organized a truce between the duo, said they had set aside their differences.
According to Governor Ortom, “we had to discuss looking at the interest of our party and for the sake of our country Nigeria we decided to sheath our sword in order to find better ways of relating with each other.
That should be the take home. So, we are more focused on the deteriorating security situation in the country. We need to partner with the federal government in that regard. And as Governors we need to work together as a team to ensure security for our people.
“As at today you can see that the entire security architecture of the country has completely collapsed. There is the urgent need to set political party aside, ethnicity and religion aside and work to ensure that all hands are on deck to provide security for our people.
“We know that without security there will be no meaningful development in the country. So whatever it will take to make sacrifices including bringing down our ego to allow peace reign it has to be done.
As for 2023, we know that politicians will always project into five to ten years programmes and all that, but if we do not work together to ensure security in our country there may be no Nigeria tomorrow and the projection of contesting election may not even come at all.
“So this particular time is for all of us to work together. But above all, we should know that we have a constitution and once we respect the provisions of our constitution there will be equity, fairness and justice for everybody then things will work out well.
“For now that is what is lacking and that is why we have continued to have these problems. Everything between me and Governor Bala Mohammed has been resolved. We are friends and we have been friends all this while. There was no need for the outburst that happened.
We have resolved to look for better ways of handling such issues. You know that experience is the better teacher, so if next time a thing of that nature happens we will not jump to the press, we will find better ways of resolving it instead of shouting and raising concerns especially at this critical time in the history of our country that we are having challenges.
“We all know that presently the country is walking on a delicate part, so as leaders we must find ways of uniting and working together to achieve peace and success,” he added.
