Governor Ortom wrong to label Atiku ‘agent of Miyetti Allah’ – Dele Momodu

Director of Strategic Communications of the Atiku-Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu, has faulted Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue for reportedly labelling the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, as an ‘agent of Miyetti-Allah.’

Momodu made this assertion while reacting to Ortom’s comment on Atiku and Miyetti Allah in Benue on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, on Tuesday.

“To label him an agent of Miyetti-Allah, that’s wrong. He can say anything about Atiku Abubakar, but to call him an agent of Miyetti Allah, I disagree vehemently with that,” said Momodu.

“If you don’t want to support a man…it’s very easy to give a dog a bad name, in order to hang it. But it is wrong to disparage a man who has served his country meritoriously; who has done everything he could for every part of his country.

“But because you are playing politics; because you disagree with him; then, you use such weighty words against him. Well, there’s always another time.

“I am telling you that even Governor Wike, who is supposed to be the angriest among them, because he participated in our (presidential) primaries, he has not used such words against Atiku Abubakar,” he added.

Ortom is one of the PDP governors who have been at loggerheads with Atiku, who is of Fulani descent, and the National Chairman of the former ruling party, Iyorchia Ayu, over the 2023 presidency bid. Other governors include Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia State).

Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, also called MACBAN, is an advocacy group centred on promoting the welfare of Fulani pastoralists in Nigeria.

The group has been fingered in many clashes involving pastoralists and farmers, most recently in Benue where over 20 people, including a police officer, were reportedly killed by armed herdsmen in an attack on Gbeji community in Ukum Local Government Area of the state.