The Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has lauded the National Assembly for issuing a six-week ultimatum on President Muhammadu Buhari to step up the fight against insecurity or risk being impeached.

This is just as the Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has also commended the lawmakers for the initiative adding however that the move was coming a bit late.

The Governor made his position known Friday when he received the Minority Leader of the Senator, Senator Philip Aduda and some members of the National Assembly who visited him in Abuja.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur, made available to newsmen in Makurdi, the Governor described the decision of both the Senate and House of Representatives to impeach the President as “patriotic” and, particularly commended some members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, who opted to do the ‘right thing’.

According to Governor Ortom, “President Buhari has performed far below the expectations of Nigerians in solving both the security and economic challenges of the country and so needs to give way for a more competent person.”

Ealier, Senator Aduda told Governor Ortom that as a leader of the PDP in the North Central, the delegation considered it appropriate to brief him on the decision of the National Assembly to impeach the President.

Senator Aduda told the Governor that although the impeachment move was initiated by the PDP members in the Senate and supported by members of the House of Representatives but a good number of the APC members had also joined initiative.

Senator Aduda was accompanied on the visit Senator Orker Jev and Hon. Samson Okwu among others.

Reacting to the impeachment move, the National President of the MBF, Dr. Bitrus Pogu said: “I think he impeachment is coming a bit late. Things have so degenerated, they should have done it earlier than now maybe it would have saved some things.

“But to me let it be a wake up call because things have fallen apart and the major issue in the entire matter is that of insecurity because it is the insecurity that has brought the economy down.

“We all know that foreign direct investment can never happen in an environment where there is insecurity. And rather than use weapons that gulp alot of our money including the Tucano jet and all that to fight the terrorists, they are pampering the criminals in the bushes and the weapons are not being used.

“We have the equipment and the military is not allowed to use it. The military is not given a free hand to use them.

“Before now we used to shout about the Service Chiefs not doing their jobs. But who is the Service Chief? He is an employee of the Commander-in-Chief. If the Commander-in-Chief says you cannot kill these people but only arrest them, as was disclosed last week by a soldier in a viral video on social media that was trending that they were instructed not to kill members of Boko Haram but that they are allowed only to capture them. And as a result they lose about six to eight soldiers to capture one Boko Haram member. And now they have been let lose on Nigerians.

“So with the worsening insecurity, the President Buhari shouldn’t remain in office; and the fact that he said that he is even tired is enough reason for him to leave. Let him hand over to Osinbajo to supervise the remaining months of the administration to the handover next year.

“At least we have seen how Prof. Osinbajo perform during those short periods of two to three months when he was out of the country. Things worked within the short period. So to me the National Assembly is going in the right direction and they should remember that those of them who are working along party lines are not doing Nigeria any good.

“I believe that if somebody is elected as a Senator or member of the House he becomes a representative of Nigeria and his constituency and not a party man. So they should work as representatives of the country and save the country from total collapse.

“We cannot be on everyday basis hearing of soldiers being ambushed and being killed or soldiers are invited to a place and being killed. It’s like a daily occurance and that shouldn’t continue considering the fact that with the intelligence that is available the military know the exact location of these terrorists.

“The issue that hostages may be killed shouldn’t be an excuse. When you go to a place you know the person who has the ground and who doesn’t have a ground.

“So to me the impeachment move is a wake-up call for the President to either say, ‘gentlemen I would do the job’ and he sits up and does the job; or he cannot do the job, so he either resigns or they remove him ingloriously.

“So he should better leave gloriously by resigning to allow his Vice take over because impeachment will make him go down in history as the first President who because of incompetence in one area or the other is removed from office through the instrument of government, by impeachment.”

It will be recalled that the PDP caucus of the Senate led by the Senate Minority Leader, Philip Aduda on Thursday, July 27, 2022 walked out of plenary to protest the failure of President Buhari to end insecurity in the country.

Senator Aduda and his colleagues later addressed the Senate Press Corps where they issued a six-week ultimatum after which they would initiate impeachment proceedings against President Buhari if he failed to end insecurity in the country.

Members of the PDP caucus in the House of Representatives have also joined their colleagues in the Senate in the impeachment move (Saturday Vanguard)

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