Ortom’s aide: We appreciate Buhari’s visit but he failed to address the situation on ground

Tahaz Agerzua, spokesman of Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, says President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the state did not give hope to the people.

Speaking in an interview on Sunrise Daily, a programme on Channels Television, Agerzua said Buhari failed to address the true situation on ground.

Buhari visited the state on Monday, over two months after the new year attack by herdsmen which claimed over 80 lives.

Agerzua said while the people appreciate the visit, they were not hopeful of an end to the clashes between farmers and herders.

“We appreciate the visit but we didn’t get any hope. In Benue state, the president did not condole with us,” Agerzua said.

“We appreciate that he was able to take his time and come and sit down for several hours to listen to the stakeholders, but he did not sympathise with the families.

“The president failed to address the situation on ground and the situation is that a group of people, six months ago, made threats that they were invading Benue state, and six months later, they are carrying out this threat.

“We expected him as the commander in chief of the army to make a declaration, a statement on it. What we expected from the president was to give us assurance that the invaders would be chased out; there are presently 170,000 displaced people in eight counts across the state, that is a huge humanitarian crisis.

“We thought that there would be some word of chasing these people so that the displaced can return to their houses.”