Redeem Your Name, Concentrate On Workers’ Salaries – Group Tells Benue Gov, Ortom

The Tiv Youth Council Worldwide has called on Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to concentrate on redeeming his name and improving the lot of workers in the state other than “making headlines using the name of President Muhammadu Buhari”.

The president of the Tiv Youth group, Hon. Mike Msuaan, said this while reacting to Ortom’s response to President Muhammadu Buhari’s exclusive interview with Channels Television.

“Governor Ortom appears to be oblivious of the fact that he has taken Benue State 20 years backwards and has become a clog in the wheel of development in the state.

The group noted that “the Governor talks like an ordinary citizen forgetting that he is the chief security officer of the state who has a responsibility to protect, develop and cater for the well-being of the people of Benue State.

“The Governor seems to forget he is the only governor in the history of Nigeria who had pensioners sleep at the gate of a government house for almost two weeks to protest the protracted none payment of pensions and gratuities. Hunger pushed these pensioners to abandon their homes, to them it was better to die at the gate of government house.”

“Under Governor Ortom, poverty appears to have situated a headquarters in the state. With his inability to pay workers and pensioners in a civil service dominated state, the people have become extremely poor and unable to feed and clothe their families. Workers in the state have not been able to enjoy the minimum wage despite several deceptive press releases by the Governor directing “immediate implementation of the minimum wage for workers.”

Ortom had chided Buhari after the federal government tagged bandits as terrorists, saying he should also name Miyetti Allah, MACBAN and Fulani Nationality Movement as terrorist organisations.