More reactions have continued to trail the accusations by dethroned Emir of Kano Lamido Sanusi after he alleged that Governor Samuel Ortom was behind the reported bombing of some suspected terrorists’ hideout in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
While many have condemned the former Emir for his allegations during his interview on the BBC Hausa Service, others said Sanusi’s move was born out of desperation to profile the Governor and set him up for elimination.
Responding again to the allegations, Benue state governor, Samuel Ortom, said it has withdrawn its sympathy for the deposed Emir over his dethronement.
Speaking through his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Terver Akase, Ortom, in a statement, said he had thought that Lamido Sanusi was wrongly dethroned but that his latest “shameful outing has exposed his hypocrisy. There is little or no wonder that he was deposed by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje for his crass indiscipline and uncommon arrogance.
“As a government and people of Benue State, we have withdrawn our sympathy for Sanusi over his dethronement which ab initio looked like victimisation.
“Many Nigerians have now come to realise that it was actually well deserved due to his disregard for constituted authorities and support for lawlessness.
“His open support for Fulani pastoralists to disobey the law made by a state attests to the fact that Sanusi is indeed one of those sponsoring militia herders to perpetuate mayhem in Benue State and other parts of the country.”
Akase said a man of Sanusi’s standing ought to have known that a state Governor is not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and could therefore not have ordered the reported bombing in Doma, Nasarawa State.
“Even if the Governor has the constitutional right to request military involvement in any security situation, his power to do so ends in his state and does not extend to a neighbouring state.
“We wonder how logical Sanusi’s claim is that Governor Ortom ordered the bomb incident in Nasarawa. Only a man who has lost touch with reality; is suffering from the negative impact of his fall from grace, or is yet to recover from the combination of both factors would make such an insensitive comment such as the one attributed to the defrocked emir.
“We advise the deposed emir to desist from spitting on the graves of hundreds of Benue people who have fallen to the sword of his kinsmen. The thousands who have been living in internally displaced persons, IDP, camps do not deserve insults being hurled at them by Sanusi and his nameless group of extremists.
He said the former emir is expected to withdraw all the unguarded utterances against Governor Ortom and tender an unreserved apology as the Governor had no hand in the bombing in Nasarawa because it is beyond his powers to authorise such operations.
