- The Benue state chapter of the ruling Progressives Congress (APC) asks Nigeria's minister of defence Mansur Dan-Ali to resign
- The party described Dan-Ali's alleged statement that the implementation of the anti-grazing law is the reason for clashes in Benue and Taraba as ridiculous
The Benue state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for the resignation of Nigeria's minister of defence Mansur Dan-Ali.
The party revealed this in a statement signed by Comrade Apeh Peterhot, Director of Publicity APC Benue state in reaction to Dan-Ali allegedly blaming the implementation of anti-grazing law in some states as the immediate cause of the killings in Benue and Taraba states.
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Peterhot described the defense minister's statement as ridiculous and the highest level of public disgrace to democracy.
Read the statement below:
"The Benue state Working Committee of the, All Progressives Congress led by the chairman, Hon. Prince Emmanuel Abba Yaro, hereby states categorically that we read with utmost disgust the frivolous statement credited to the 'supposed honourable' Minister of Defence, Col. Mansur Muhammad Dan Ali where he reportedly told Nigerians and other members of the public that the attack on two communities in Benue that led to the death of over 70 innocent people and destruction of properties worth millions of Naira was as a result of the open grazing prohibition law enacted by the State Government.
While we are still bewildered if the said statement truly emanated from the Zamfara born retired Military Colonel serving as our 'supposed Defence Minister', we consider this statement as a flatly ridiculous absurdity, and the highest level of public disgrace to democracy and the Nigerian populace.
By this singular utterance, the Minister of Defence, Col. Muhammad Mansur Dan Ali (rtd) has inarguably displayed incontestable lack of the required sensibility and capacity to serve as Defence Minister in a country of over 180 million people with over 300 ethnic nationalities.
We have therefore been constrained to believe that Mr. Mansur is a component unit of the perceived conspiracy against the good and hospitably peace loving people of Benue State.
As an integral part of the country, Nigeria and as a State that gave President Muhammadu Buhari an edge in the 2015 general elections, we demand that Col. Mansur Dan Ali (rtd) resigns his position as Nigeria's Defence Minister immediately and tender an unreserved apology to the good people of Benue State and the country at large.
As a founding member and major stakeholder in our ruling party, the APC, we are forced to question Col. Mansur's real motive and demand that he publicly explains to the party leadership why we should not consider his reckless utterances as a deliberate ploy to truncate the party's victory in the 2019 general election. Through his statement, as an insider, Mansur appears to have been contracted by the opposition to work against the APC.
In as much as we would not dignify Col. Mansur with obnoxious affronts, we would again want to inform him that he is not just an ingrate, but an unrepentant pathological opportunist who was in his farm working for the PDP when many of us toiled the nooks and crannies of this country to ensure victory for President Muhammadu Buhari in the election that brought him (Buhari) to power through which he (Mansur) is one of the biggest beneficiaries.
As someone who read photography in the polytechnic and later took to animal husbandry with flocks of cows to his credit in his Zamfara country home, we urge our President, Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, to aid Col. Mansur's timely resignation and return him to his farm with a Xenon HD Camera to continue taking snapshots of his flock of herds back home.
Minister Mansur apparently is one of those who are working against the unity of Nigeria and must be stopped now before he and others with such parochial, hateful, divisive and repulsive tendencies plunge the country into deeper crisis.
We once again declare our staunch support for our dear Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, and herein reiterate our commitment towards making the open grazing prohibition law our number one priority in the State."
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NAIJ.com previously reported that Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue argued that the recent implementation of the anti-grazing law of 2017 in the state is not the reason behind the escalating herdsmen and farmers crises as allegedly claimed by a top government official.
Channels Television reports that Governor Ortom said comments allegedly attributed to Mansur Dan Ali, defence minister, that the anti-grazing law is the reason for escalated violence, may not help the victims of the attacks.
Victims of Herdsmen killing buried in Benue State on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng