A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, says the attempt on the life of Governor Samuel Ortom is an attack on the Benue people.
Dr Mailafia who stated this while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily was reacting to the recent assassination attempt on the Benue State Governor by some gunmen.
Mailafia expressed grief over the fact that some forces empower certain people from a part of the country with weapons to terrorize citizens, adding that the people of the Middle Belt are not afraid of those who carried out the assault on their governor.
“This attempt on the life of an executive governor and incumbent of a state is an attempted attack on the entire people of the state. Those who are trying to do this wicked thing need to understand the implication of what they are trying to do.
“If the governor of a state cannot feel safe to go to his farm, how will the ordinary Benue people feel going to their farms? This is a very bad precedence.
“The circumstances in Borno are very different. Borno is a war zone, we’ve been living with these evil people for a while but what happened in Benue is totally different and diabolical. We don’t know what they are trying to do but this could affect the whole country.
“Benue people and the people of the Middle Belt will never ever accept this attempt on one of their sons. Nobody is afraid of these people but it is just that these people are given arms and allowed to move freely while the machetes that ordinary people have are being dispossessed from them, they are not even allowed to defend their homes and their families but we are glad that God saved the life of his Excellency, Governor Ortom.”
