Mr Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of Nigeria, on Monday expressed shock at claim by Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, that he (Osinbajo) was warned ahead of the January 1 killings in the state.
According to Punch Metro, Osinbajo, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Laolu Akande, described as “a terrible falsehood” claim that he was ever informed by the governor or anyone else about the killings.
The statement reads: “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 stated that it was opposed to the open grazing prohibition law of the state and that they would mobilise to resist the law.
“The Miyetti Allah had written to the Vice President on the 5th of June 2017 on the same law protesting several sections of the law.
“The governor went on to say that the leadership of Miyetti Allah should be arrested because they used words such as ‘wicked, obnoxious and repressive,’ to describe the law, and because these were ‘utterances that are capable of undermining the peace.
“The Vice President subsequently met with the governor, discussed the matter and the security situation in the state and then ordered law enforcement agencies to be on the alert to prevent any attacks or violence. This was in June 2017.”
The statement noted that in the said letter written by the governor, there was no mention of any threat to any specific one of the 23 local governments of the state.
It said the best the law enforcement agencies could do then was to await information or intelligence of an imminent attack and none of such came.