Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, on Tuesday, settled their rifts over their face-off on the herdsmen crisis rocking the country.
Mohammed had defended Fulani herdsmen wielding AK-47 rifles, saying they carry arms for self-protection.
While reacting, Governor Ortom lambasted the Bauchi governor for allegedly supporting criminality while labeling him a “terrorist governor”.
The conflict was resolved in Port Harcourt on Tuesday following the intervention of Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike and his Adamawa State counterpart, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri.
Briefing journalists at the meeting which held at Wike’s private residence at Rumuepirikom, Mohammed said the outburst between him and Ortom over herders/Fulani profiling was highly regrettable.
“We don’t mean to divide the country, to divide our people. We are still friends and brothers and that we will move forward because most of those issues are fully resolved.
I want to seize this opportunity to tell Nigerians that whatever misconception that is there, that me and my brother Ortom are having problem or anybody in Nigeria is not true. What happened was just an explanation that emanated from a larger Governors’ Forum that we spoke on the security of the nation and we talked of the failure of security infrastructure which everybody knows is under the purview of the federal government,” Mohammed said.
Similarly, Ortom thanked Wike and Fintiri for arranging the meeting where it was agreed that outburst between him and his Bauchi State counterpart was not needed.
“We have accepted that it was wrong for us to have that kind of outburst that went out, but as from today we have learnt. We are all fallible human beings and we are subject to mistakes and so when we make mistakes , it is a plus for us if we correct them. And I think moving forward, we shall live together. The Fulani and Tiv people have cohabitated for a long time and there is no issue whatsoever,” Ortom said.
Ortom identified the failure of the security architecture of the country which is anchored by the federal government for the recent outburst between him and Governor Mohammed.
“We look forward that the federal government should stoop down to conquer by accepting that, yes ,they have failed, so that together the State and the local government can come together to find a way of finding a lasting solution to this country.
Wike thanked the Governors of Bauchi and Benue States for amicably resolving their dispute.
“We give God the glory today that those difference have been sorted out. We are members of one political party. Like what the Governor of Bauchi and Governor of Benue said, we don’t want the inefficiency, we don’t want the incapacity of the Federal Government in handling the issue of insecurity in the country to rub on us.
