TheCable

Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, says the President Muhammadu Buhari administration needs to step up efforts to address insecurity.

The governor, while speaking with journalists on Tuesday in Abuja, said Nigerians are “under siege” and if urgent steps are not taken, “terrorists would overrun the country in no distant time”.

According to him, over 1,700 persons have been killed in Benue under the present administration.

He said about 1.5 million persons are still in camps for internally displaced person (IDPs) across the state with no hope of returning to their ancestral homes soon.

He said as a “patriotic Nigerian”, he has the responsibility to speak out against any threat to the country’s sovereignty, and that those keeping silent in the face of evil perpetrated by bandits are worse than the actual perpetrators.

He also said the All Progressives Congress (APC)- led government “did not only fail Nigerians, but has also appeared helpless in the fight against insecurity and has shown that it has no capacity to fix the economy, agriculture and education”.

He also alleged that a cabal has prevented him from meeting the president over the issue of insecurity, which was why he sought alternative ways to present his position to Nigerians on the security situation.

While speaking on his party’s interest in moving the country forward, he called on Nigerians to support the “rebranded” Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).