The Deputy Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly (BAHA), Hon. Danlami Ahmed Kawule, who is also representing Zungur/ Galambi Constituency has urged Governor of Benue State, Mr. Samuel Ortom to apologise to the people of Bauchi State for making the alleged derogatory statement on Senator Bala Mohammed.
Gov. Ortom had recently recently announced Gov. Bala as a ‘Fulani Terrorist’. This came after several ‘jabs’ by the political leaders on why Fulani herdsmen should and should not carry AK-47.
Deputy Speaker, Hon. Danlami Ahmed Kawule in an interview with journalists in Bauchi on Tuesday, 23rd February, said that the citizens of the state as well as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state are not happy over the strain in relationship between the two PDP governors who are supposed to be working towards the unity of the nation.
He maintained that leaders in the country should refrain from making utterances that have the capacity to heat up the polity, pointing out that no nation can progress in a state of chaos.
“As far as I am concerned, Governor Ortom needs to apologise to the people of Bauchi State for tagging Governor Mohammed as a terrorist because Bauchi people are not terrorists neither is the governor. Such statement should not come out from the mouth of a leader who happens to be a mouth piece of the people who everybody look forward to as a role model.”
“For him to say that if you cannot follow the law in Benue State, go to Bauchi State and pick AK-47 is very dehumanising. What does Governor Ortom mean by such a statement? That statement is an abusive word. We are not happy over this development because Bauchi State is the most secured place in the country where other neighbouring states who are bedeviled by insecurity come to settle”
He argued that Mohammed has been working hard to foster peaceful coexistence in the country and would not be part of any plot to disintegrate it.
According to him, when the governor said that Fulani herders should defend themselves, the statement was not meant to create tension in the country, but to proffer solutions to the insecurity problems in the country.
Kawule said that Fulani herders have the right to defend themselves, stressing that tagging them as terrorists was unfair and not in the interest peaceful coexistence.
