Oshiomhole: Herdsmen Not Responsible for Killings in Nigeria

Benjamin Nworie in Abakaliki

The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole saturday exonerated the marauding herdsmen from the killings in some parts of the country.

Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State, also said some people were turning the truth upside down to portray the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in bad light by linking all the killings in some states in the country as the handwork of herdsmen.

He exonerated the herdsmen at a rally he addressed in Abakaliki yesterday to receive some defectors to the APC, assuring Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari and security agencies were working hard to end insecurity in the country.

Some of the defectors include Sen. Sunny Ogboji, former Minister of Power and Steel, Mr. Goody Ogbaga, former Secretary to Ebonyi State Government, Mr. Ifeanyi Odoh and former Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon. Augustine Nwankwegu.

At the rally, the national chairman urged Nigerians not “to allow themselves to be deceived by the antics of selfish politicians in the country who are trying to give the security challenges in the country an ethnic colouration in other to score cheap political points.”

He stressed that the security challenges were a ploy “to portray the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in bad light by portraying all the killings in some states in the country as the handwork of herdsmen.
“Let me urge you to be more careful because this season people are spreading untruth. People are being hired to turn the gospel upside down. They want us to believe that every problem should be explained in ethnic and religious terms.

“We have a problem and we must confront those problems. Criminals must be dealt with individually as criminals and government at all levels must work hard to protect every Nigerian regardless of tribe or religion.”

Oshiomhole urged the people of the South-east to vote for APC and Buhari in the 2019 elections as he has delivered democratic dividends to the zone.

According to him, if Buhari has remembered the Southeast which did not give him more than 10 percent in 2015 imagine what he will do if you give him 85percent in 2019”.

In his remark at the rally, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu in his remarks noted 2015 he pleaded with the people of the southeast not to put it’s eggs in one basket but his pleadings fell on deaf ears

He said: “In 2015 I pleased with the zone not to put our eggs in one basket. Today, I want them to compare the 16 years of PDP and relate it with just 3 years of PDP. The three years of APC is greater than the 16 years of PDP. The time has come for the South-east to be in the mainstream of Nigerian politics by voting for President Buhari and APC in 2019.

He said that in addition to the new River Niger Bridge and many federal roads in the zone, Buhari had also approved a new agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to be established in South-east.

He urged the people not to give their PVCs to anybody but to guide it jealously as it is the only way they can return President Buhari in 2019.

Former Abịa State Governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu said the new River Niger Bridge, which the PDP could not construct in 16 years, has now reached 53 percent completion.

Kalu noted that work “is progressing in the two major highways in the zone, the Onitsha to Enugu Road and the Enugu Port Harcourt expressway.”

The former governor noted that the Southeast would give the President and APC majority of its votes in 2019 “to reply him for all the projects and democracy dividends he has magnanimously cited in the zone.”