![](\"http:\/\/arewa.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/akume.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAyu described the statement made by the former Governor of the state as \u201cunfortunate, irresponsible and embarrassing\u201d considering the position he occupies in the society.<\/p>\n
The former Senate President spoke during a reception organized by Jima Ya community of Ipav in honour of the Executive Chairman of the Benue State Internal Revenue Service, BIRS, Mr. Terzungwe Atser at Akaajime in Gboko area of the state.<\/p>\n
He lamented that such comment was coming from Akume, who as the Senate Committee Chairman on Army has \u201cfailed woefully to prevail on the federal government to end the killing of hundreds of innocent people in the state only to make such a spurious allegation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayu, however, vowed that he would continue to support the State Governor, Samuel Ortom, who has courageously stood firm in defence of human lives and property.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is high time the people of Benue speak with one voice against those who want to cause disaffection between them and the government of governor Samuel Ortom\u201d, Ayu stated.<\/p>\n
Also reacting to Akume\u2019s allegation, Secretary to the Benue State Government, Professor Anthony Ijohor SAN, condemned the utterance and urged the people to be vigilant.<\/p>\n
Ijohor urged people of the state to resist at any level the Senator\u2019s antics which he said had characterised his recent public outings both in the state and at the national level.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unthinkable for a man like Akume who is from Benue to go public to allege that the Benue State Government is responsible for the killing of its people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe implication of his unfortunate outing in Abuja is that we have a big problem on our hands. They are now changing the narrative to blame the victim,\u201d Ijohor stressed.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the Executive Chairman of Benue State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Dr. Philip Tachin urged people of the state to stand firm in their support of Governor Ortom\u2019s re-election.<\/p>\n
He described Senator Akume\u2019s comment as shameful.<\/p>\n
Tachin said it was shocking that a \u201cBenue son would opt to take sides with enemies of the state against his people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He charged the people to \u201cStand behind Governor Ortom\u201d because the governor has \u201cremained resilient and undaunted to ensure our land and destiny is preserved\u201d.\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A former Senate President, Iyorchia Ayu, has lambasted the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, Senator George Akume for saying that the Benue State Government and not armed Fulani herdsmen are responsible for the killings in the state. Ayu described the statement made by the former Governor of the state as \u201cunfortunate, irresponsible and embarrassing\u201d considering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[35,5664,1816],"class_list":["post-64447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-benue","tag-george-akume","tag-samuel-ortom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}