No 2023 elections if insecurity persists - Ortom

Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom told the media after a recent meeting with President Buhari at the statehouse in Abuja on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, that the country may not go to the polls in 2023 should the security situation in the country persist.

He said the nation is sitting on a keg of gun powder without meaningful progress being made on the issue of security.

Speaking on the protection of the constitution, Ortom appealed for the provisions of the constitution to be protected to enable equity, fairness, and justice in the country, Channels TV reports.

He criticized the issue of impunity in the country which he said has been allowed to fester, thereby urging the Federal Government to immediately prosecute anyone found culpable of breaching the law.

On the question of reports alleging that attacks on his convoy was a pseudo claim, the Governor explicitly appealed to everyone not to politicize the issue of attempted assassination on his person, Channels TV reports.

He made the emphasis that the attack on his convoy by about 15 gunmen suspected to be herdsmen, while on a visit to his farm was not stage-managed.

While asserting that he has not done anything wrong in enacting an anti-open grazing law beneficial to the state, he said the demand by the cattle breeders association, Miyetti Allah to repel the law would be impossible to fulfill, because it went through due process, hence the matter is clearly beyond him.

He prayed that what happened to him would not be experienced by anyone else.