Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday in Abuja, said the second delegation of governors who went to visit President Muhammadu Buhari, advised him against hurrying back to the country.
Buhari has been in London for a few days less ninety days, where he is said to be undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
Recently, two delegations, a first consisting of governors and ministers, and a second group of all governors under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) visited the President in London at close intervals.
Since their return, there have been speculations about the exact date of the President’s return even as staff in the Presidency say they have been put on stand by for his return. The Presidency would usually issue a statement a day or two to the return of the President as in the last case when he spent 49 days in London.
According to Ortom who was part of the NGF delegation, though they met the President in a relatively good shape, they reminded him that there was no need to rush home seeing he has the Acting President who is doing a good job of holding the fort in his absence.
“Mr. President is doing well, we appreciate God, we saw him, he was not in a wheel chair, he was not bedridden, he greeted us, we cracked jokes and he was mentally alert. We discussed about the security situations in the country and asked us questions about what we are doing. Our prayer is that God will consummate his healing. We asked him not to hurry because there is no vacuum, the Acting President is holding forth for him and he is doing very well and he has his
confidence. By the grace of God I believe that very soon he will be with us” the told newsmen at the State House, Abuja when he visited the Acting President’s office.
Ortom who said he was one of the first few to initiate both Christian and Muslim prayers for President Buhari’s health also urged Nigerians to desist from castigating the President and rather pray for him.
“I will say halleluyah God has answered my prayers. I was the first person that initiated prayers, both Christians and Muslims to pray for Mr. President because that is our duty, Romans 13:1,2 talks about that there is no power that be without God’s ordination and those of us who are subjects should continue to pray for such. So it is our responsibility not to be castigating Mr. President or be wishing him or whatever. We should be praying for him” he said
He added that if the “President is sick it means all of us are sick, the whole country is sick. So its is our responsibility to pray that Mr. President gets well so that our country too will be well”.
In a related development, the governor also said that his books were open for anti-graft agencies including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to go through as he has nothing to hide. He was speaking in relation to allegations of graft labeled against him by a
former police commissioner in Lagos State.
Tsav who is a member of the Federal Public Compliant Commission (FCC) recently wrote a petition against the Governor accusing him of running the state as a personal enterprise.
Ortom has since dragged the former Commission of Police to Court for deliberately attempting to assassinate his character and undermine his leadership.
“I want EFCC and ICPC or anywhere that he has written those things to come and investigate whether those things are true. That is why I decided to go to court, since I am a law abiding governor, if not people of such know what used to happen to them in the past. But I am a christian, I am a law abiding person who believes in rule of law and
due process.
I instructed my attorney general and commissioner for justice to take him to court so that the whole world will know that he is a liar” he said.
