In a jibe apparently directed at the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has blamed a lack of “experienced leadership” for killings in Benue State, barely two days after the infamous Abuja-Kaduna train attack on Monday night.
Atiku made the remark on Thursday on Twitter while reacting to the reported killings.
In a Wednesday statement, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue called on residents to defend themselves after what he called “coordinated attacks on Guma, Kwande, and Gwer West local government areas of the state on Tuesday, March 29th, 2022”.
“A report from the team leader of security agencies in Kasekyo near Tse Torkula village in Guma local government said that suspected Fulani herders at about 0930 hours on Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 shot one Turner Ajar and an unidentified elderly man who were on a motorcycle going to the farm.
“The team of Agro Rangers who were on patrol in the area tried to rescue the situation but unfortunately many had already been killed. Their corpses were taken and deposited at a hospital in Gbajimba, Guma local government area of the state,” the statement signed by the governor’s media aide, Nathaniel Ikyur, read in part.
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Reacting to a Premium Times report on the killings, Atiku wrote, “Divison is why these attacks continue to occur – we are a divided nation. They are because there is no experienced leadership that unites us as a One People.
“No experienced leadership that provides One Future. No experienced leadership that unites us as One Country. This bloodletting is a crime before God and man. A crime of division and not unity. We cannot reverse this ugly trend if we remain in the same cycle of divisiveness.
“When we come together in unity, our collective strength can never be challenged. As one, we can get it done.”