Presidency Tackles Ortom, Opens up on Buhari "Accepting" Invite to be Boko Haram Negotiator

• The presidency has described as "tautological" the recent allegations of "Fulanization" by Governor Samuel Ortom against President Muhammadu Buhari
• Presidential aide Garba Shehu said Ortom's allegation that Buhari accepted to be Boko Haram negotiator in 2012 "does not accord with common sense"
• Shehu's response is coming amid a public feud between the federal government and Benue state governor over insecurity and killing in the country

The presidency on Saturday, August 28, denied the allegations that President Muhammadu Buhari accepted in 2012 the invitation to be Boko Haram negotiator.

The denial was made as the face-off between the federal government and Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state continues to fester over insecurity and killings in the country.

Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu, in an interview with BBC News Pidgin monitored by Legit.ng, said the allegation by Governor Ortom against his principal is baseless.

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Ortom's allegation doesn’t accord with common sense

He added that Buhari was not chosen by Boko Haram as their negotiator when his predecessor, former president Goodluck Jonathan, reportedly moved to enter an agreement with the dreaded sect.

Shehu, who was reacting to the Benue governor's allegation that the president wants to "Fulanise the country", described Ortom's statement as "tautological and it doesn’t accord with common sense," The Punch reports.

“There is no record anywhere that he accepted to be with them and he has denounced them over and over again and has rejected their creed.

"People can make all sorts of claims, they can say all sorts of things. It would have mattered to the nation, to everyone, if at that point, then General Muhammadu Buhari had accepted the invitation to go and be representative of Boko Haram", Shehu said.

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Buhari has done worse to bandits than being named terrorists

Earlier in the same interview, the presidential spokesman declared that "enormous successes" are being recorded in the federal government's dealing with bandits and terrorists.

Justifying the current government's efforts in the fight against crime and terrorism, Garba Shehu said President Muhammadu Buhari administration "has done to the arms-wielding bandits worse than being declared as terrorists."

The presidential aide said Buhari's shoot-at-sight order on AK-47-carrying bandits was not issued on the prescribed successionist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Source: Legit.ng