Real reason Buhari is going to Benue, Yobe, others is not to show sympathy, Fayose says

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has described President Muhammadu Buhari’s eventual decision to visit Benue, Yobe and other states with records of different forms of killings and attacks this year as an afterthought.

He said that Buhari’s final decision to visit the affected states he abandoned during their times of trouble, was nothing but a plot to seek for votes and not to sympathize with the people of the states on their losses.

Fayose was responding to the statement released by the Presidency on Monday announcing that President Buhari will from March 5, begin to visit the states of Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Yobe and Rivers, which have recorded different forms of killings and kidnappings this year.

He said in a statement issued on Monday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, that “obviously, the president is more concerned about his reelection in 2019 and his visit to those states that he abandoned during their times of trouble is to seek for votes, not to sympathize with the people of the states on their loses.”

The governor likened President Buhari to a selfish king who went on merry making while his people were in agony only to show up when the people had already buried their loved ones that were gruesomely murdered, gotten over their anguish and moved on with their lives.

“It was the height of cruelty that the same President Buhari, who promised to lead from the front in the fight against Boko Haram could not visit Dapchi, Yobe State, where 110 school girls were abducted by the insurgents, but choose to go on merry making in Kano.

“On January 9 and 12, this year, 88 victims of herdsmen attacks were given mass burial in Taraba State. Also on January 11, 2018, another 73 persons killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Benue State were buried in a mass grave in Makurdi, the state capital.

“Meaning that in Taraba and Benue States alone, 161 Nigerians were given mass burial within three days! This never caught the attention of our President. Rather, it was a visit to Nasarawa, a neighboring State to Benue that was important to him.

“To further demonstrate his lack of compassion for Nigerians, while the entire nation, especially parents of the 110 abducted school girls in Dapchi, Yobe State are still in anguish, President Buhari went to Kano last Saturday to attend a social function, thus sparking negative reactions from Nigerians.

“Apparently, it was the negative reactions of Nigerians, especially on Social Media and the effects on the President’s reelection bid that necessitated his hurried visit to Taraba State today, and planned visits to Benue, Zamfara, Yobe and Rivers States.

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“I am sure the people of Taraba State won’t be hoodwinked by the President’s cosmetic sympathy, show of concern and crocodile tears, which he never bordered to shed when hundreds of indigenes of the State were being killed by suspected herdsmen,” Fayose said.

While declaring the visits as belated and afterthought, Governo Fayose added, “Nigerians can no longer be deceived by a President who never cared for them when they needed him most. Therefore, no amount of hurriedly organized campaign visits will sway the people, who never saw the President to protect them from being killed and console them when they lost their dear ones.”

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