AK-47 comments: My feud with Gov Ortom regrettable, says Bauchi governor
- The intense verbal exchanges between Governors Bala Mohammed and Samuel Ortom has come to an end
- Both governors admitted that they were wrong to have attacked each other verbally via the media
- The truce between the duo was initiated by their counterparts from Rivers and Adamawa states
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Bauchi state governor, Senator Bala Mohammed, on Tuesday, March 2 described the feud between him and his Benue counterpart, Governor Samuel Ortom over comments relating to the farmers/herders crisis as regrettable.
Governor Mohammed made the comment at Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers state where host Governor Nyesom Wike and Adamawa state chief executive, Governor Ahmed Fintiri, reconciled the duo.
All four governors are members of the main opposition party in Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Following a warm embrace between Ortom and Mohammed, after the truce brokered by Wike and Finitri, the Bauchi governor said the tension between him and his Benue counterpart was fuelled by widespread insecurity in the country.
Source: Twitter
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Vanguard quoted him as saying:
“We don’t mean to divide the country, to divide our people. We are still friends and brothers and we will move forward because most of those issues are fully resolved. Whatever misconception generated, that me and my brother, Ortom are having problem or with 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 talked of the failure of security infrastructure which everybody knows is under the purview of the federal government.”
On his part, Governor Ortom said it was wrong for him and the Bauchi governor to verbally attack each other via the media.
He admitted that they both mistakes, adding that as human beings, they are not above mistakes.
He added:
“We must come together, not to talk ethnicity or religion. We must come together as brothers and sisters who have no other country than Nigeria, to work together towards a common cause that will solve the problem we have.”
Legit.ng had earlier shared a photo of the PDP governors embracing each other in the said meeting.
Recall that at the height of their feud, Governor Ortom said that some herdsmen threatened to assassinate him after Governor Mohammed's statement that Fulani herdsmen had the right to carry AK-47.
He said he believes that Governor Mohammed was the one who gave the herdsmen the power to issue a death threat on him, adding that the Bauchi governor should be held responsible if anything happens to him.
Jerrywright Ukwu is an Abuja-based senior political/defence correspondent at Legit.ng. He is a graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos and the International Institute of Journalism in Abuja. He is also a member of the Nigeria Union of Journalists. He spends his leisure-time reading history books. He can be reached via email at jerrywright39@yahoo.com.
Source: Legit.ng
