Atiku promises to reconcile Fulanis with Tivs to ensure peace in Benue

…Ortom has no where to go, will come back to PDP – Ayu

By Tunde Opalana

Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has promised that his administration will restore peace to Benue State if elected president come February 25, 2025.

He promised to revisit his peace accords initiative between indigenous Tivs people and the inhabitant Fulanis.

The former vice president gave assurance while soliciting votes from the people of the state in Makurdi on Monday in furtherance of the PDP presidential campaign.

Assuring the umbrella of Tiv people all over the world, Atiku said ” I promise you, if you elect me as your president, just like I did in 2001, when I came to Benue and made the Fulanis to sign a peace accord with their brothers Tivs, I will come and make sure peace returns to Benue State.

” Benue State is the food basket of this country, but today our farmers in Benue do not go to farm again because of insecurity. I will make sure security returns to Benue State.”

Making further promises, the presidential candidate said “by the grace of God, the issue of unemployment of our young men and women will be a thing of the past, that is why in my policy document, I said we are going to allocate 10 billion US dollars to empower our young men and women with enterprises.

“Let me also assure you that the infrastructural deficit you are facing in this state in terms of your connectivity with other neighboring states will be a thing of the past because we are going to make sure that we vote funding for development of roads and railways to make sure that our transportation system is once again working.”

He charged Benue voters not to make a mistake of voting for APC it returning it to power again, saying “you know what we have done between 1999 and 2015, we brought prosperity, we brought jobs, peace to this country, we have the experience to repeat those feats again. So I want to appeal to you to vote for PDP in the coming elections.

Harping on the unity of the PDP ahead of the polls, national chairman of the party said the governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom will not defect from the party.

Ayu said “I am appealing to my younger brother, Gov. Ortom to come back and join us, so that we will fight to rescue Nigeria. Gov. Ortom has nowhere to go, his only house is the PDP and anytime that he comes, we shall be more than happy to receive him and all the PDP governors.

“Two days ago, Gov. Ikpeazu was in my house because he lost his gubernatorial candidate. We have resolved problem with governor Ikpeazu and the whole of Abia is coming back.

“We want all our candidates, all our governors to be with us because if you allow APC to win this election, you will regret it.”

He however commended party members in the state for shelving their differences and rallying round candidates of PDP to ensure that Benue remain a PDP state and to ensure all candidates of the come out victorious at the polls.

He said “thank you for coming out in large numbers, to support our presidential candidate and all the PDP candidates. I want to appreciate you have rebuilt this party, it is a strong party, it is the a united Party.

“All of you know that you have suffered in this country in the last eight years under APC. It is only somebody who has mental problem that will vote for APC. Do not waste your vote.

READ ALSO: Stop Uzodinma’s move to borrow additional N118 Billion.

“Vote for every PDP candidate. The party is not divided. There are a few members who have grievances. We are talking to them. We want to make sure they come back and work with us fully.

“One week is enough to change everything. This thing has been going on and I want to assure you that we’ll receive everybody back.”