Sen. Dino MelayeThe spokesperson for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Dino Melaye has cautioned Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, against dragging the Presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar into the Fulani herders’ attacks in Benue State.
Dino Melaye, who spoke today, November 8 in an Arise TV interview, said that it is unfair for Governor Ortom to paint Atiku in a bad light just so as to justify why he would not support him, as a Fulani man, due to atrocities of the Fulani people in Benue State.
Governor Ortom had said in Makurdi, the state capital yesterday, November 7 that he would not support Atiku, the Presidential candidate of the party under which he is governing the state, because he (Atiku) is a Fulani man.
The governor spoke in the presence of his colleagues – Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State; Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State and Okezie Ikpeazu Abia State.
The Benue State Governor said: “my people are being killed and you want me to be quiet; you want me to be a slave to a Fulani. It’s better I die. Anybody supporting Atiku in Benue is an enemy of the state.”
But Dino Melaye described the statement of Governor Orton as amounting to dragging Atiku into the mud over the issue which he does not cause.
“Everybody has the right to support any presidential candidate of his choice. But it is unfair for Governor Ortom to put the blame of criminalities of Fulani herders going on in Benue State on the lap of our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
“I also condemn the attacks and killing of people in Benue, but this has nothing to do with Atiku Abubakar.”
The PDP Presidential Campaign Council’s spokesman reasoned that all Fulani people are evil, adding that there are good Muslims and Christians among the Fulani.
According to him, former Nigerian Presidents, Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’Adua were both Fulani who appointed Benue indigenes into their respective governments.
