Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his Adamawa State counterpart, Ahmed Fintiri, have brokered peace between the Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, and his Bauchi counterpart, Bala Mohammed.
The acrimonious relationship was resolved amicably in Port Harcourt yesterday in Wike’s private residence at Rumuepirikom, Obio/Akpor Local Council.
Governor Mohammed described the outburst between him and Ortom over herders/Fulani profiling as highly regrettable. He said: “We don’t mean to divide the country, to divide our people. We are still friends and brothers, and we will move forward because most of those issues are fully resolved.
“I want to seize this opportunity to tell Nigerians that whatever misconception that my brother, Ortom, and I are having problem is not true. What happened was just an explanation that emanated from a larger governors’ forum that we spoke on the security of the nation and we talked of the failure of security infrastructure, which everybody knows is under the purview of the Federal Government.”
Similarly, Ortom appreciated Wike and Fintiri for arranging the meeting where it was agreed that the controversial outburst was unnecessary.
“We have accepted that it was wrong for us to have that kind of outburst, but as from today, we have learnt. We are all fallible human beings; so when we make mistakes, it is a plus for us to correct them. I think, moving forward, we shall live together. The Fulani and Tiv people have cohabited for a long time and there is no issue whatsoever,” Ortom said.
Wike thanked the governors of Bauchi and Benue for amicably resolving their dispute.His words: “We give God the glory today that those differences have been sorted out. We are members of one political party. Like what the governors of Bauchi and Benue said, we don’t want the inefficiency and incapacity of the Federal Government in handling the issue of insecurity in the country to rub on us.” On his part, Fintiri said, as national leaders, it behoved him and Wike to intervene in the disagreement between their colleagues.
