Osinbajo denies prior knowledge of Benue killings
By Akadiri Ademola
The Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo has denied claims by the Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, that he had prior warning of probable attack in the State.
The Vice President utterly condemns the claim and described the information being spread in the media by the Benue State Governor as “a terrible falsehood”
In his issued statement, Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande Tuesday in Abuja acknowledge that although the Presidency received a letter from the State Governor dated 7th June, last year while he (Osinbajo) was the Acting President, but it revealed that the content of the letter disclosed nothing about a planned attack in any part of the 23 Local Government of the State.
The statement read in parts: “Governor Ortom wrote to the Vice President, then Acting president on 7th June 2017 protesting a newspaper publication where the leadership of Miyetti Allah was reported to have opposed the Open Grazing Prohibition Law of the state and threatened to mobilise people to resist the law”
The Vice President’s Special Assistant also confirmed that Miyetti Allah had prior to the Governor’s letter on 5th of the same month, conveyed a letter on the law, kicking against several provisions of it.
The Governor, according to the statement, in his own letter called for the arrest of the leadership of Miyetti Allah accusing them to have used words such as wicked, obnoxious and repressive to describe the law, and asserts that such utterances are capable of forestalling peace in the state.
Mr. Akande noted further that the Vice President with the intention of mediating, met with Governor Ortom and they discussed the issue as well as the security concerns of the State, which prompted the Vice President to alert Law Enforcement Agency to prevent any attack.
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