Governor Fayose, who was reacting to the killing of 18 worshippers and the two priests in Benue State allegedly by herdsmen, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) without approval of the National Assembly and the controversial arrest of Senator Dino Melaye, were indications that “under this government of President Buhari, the constitution is on suspension.”
He said, “If half of the level aggressiveness being shown by the Police on the arrest of Senator Dino Melaye because of seeming concocted allegations is shown on the killings by herdsmen across the North Central States and other parts of the country, the rampaging killer herdsmen that are even killing policemen would have been brought under control.”
Special Assistant to the governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said in a statement issued on Tuesday night that, “it is alarming and curious that Father Joseph Gor, one of the Catholic Priests that were murdered in Benue State today, raised the alarm on January 3, 2018, through his Facebook account on the occupation of Mbalom community by herdsmen. Yet, the priest was killed!”
The governor asked; “Why is the federal government allowing this seeming ethnic cleansing in Benue and other middle-belt States, such that President Buhari and the entire members of his government do not see the wanton killings as anything to be worried about?
“When did Nigeria degenerate to the level that people can no longer worship peacefully in their churches or go to their farms? When did Nigeria become a state of anomie where people are killed even after raising alarm that there was threat to their existence?”
On the illegal withdrawal of $496 million from the Excess Crude Account, Governor Fayose said; “One day, this federal government will even stop releasing statutory allocations to States and Local councils. They are behaving as if the constitution of the country is already suspended and this should worry lovers of democracy in Nigeria. He said it was alarming that “despite that Local Councils in Ekiti State were in court, challenging the federal government decision to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account and the Attorney General of the Federation had already entered appearance in the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/17 that came up for hearing before Justice Binta Nyako on Monday, $496 million was taken from the Excess Crude Account.”
The governor, who described the President’s action on the illegal withdrawal from the ECA as an insult on the National Assembly and the Judiciary, added that; “Only the National Assembly and the judiciary can save themselves from being turned to a non-existing institutions as already being done by the President.”
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