I ‘ll ensure herders sign peace accord with Benue farmers if elected president – Atiku

By Titus Atondu, Makurdi

The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar , has pledged to ensure that the Fulani herders sign a peace accord with Benue farmers, to ensure that the state enjoys peace again.

Atiku made the pledge on Monday during the PDP presidential rally at Aper Aku Stadium, Makurdi.

Atiku expressed worry over the negative effect of the continuous attacks, where farmers in the state no longer go to farm to produce food for the country for fear of attacks.

“When I will come to power I will make sure that Fulanis sign a peace accord to end killings in the state,” Atiku said.

He further condoled with the families that lost their loved ones in the past seven to eight years in the state.

He further promised to fund the education sector in order to end incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), if given the mandate as the president of Nigeria.

“The issue of strike will be a thing of the past, because all the demands of ASUU will be adequately attended to,” Atiku promised.

In his address, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, urged Benue people to vote for all the PDP candidates, emphasizing that only someone with mental problem would vote for any candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Anybody who deceives you not to vote for all candidates of the PDP is not telling you the truth,” Ayu said.

He assured that the party had little misunderstanding amongst its members, added that they were working hard to resolve the issues and receive everybody back into the party’s folds for 100 per cent victory in the forthcoming elections.

He appealed to the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom to come back and join forces with them in the party so that they would fight together to restore the lost glory of the country.

“Ortom does not have anywhere to go apart from the PDP. We will bring him back so that we work together for the good of the party. If you allow APC to win the election you will regret,” Ayu said.

On his part, Senator Gabriel Suswam stated that all prominent Benue sons and daughters were solidly behind Atiku, emphasizing that they would surely work for his victory as well as all candidates of the party.

Suswam charged Benue people to pass the information across to people in their villages that PDP was the only party that they should vote for during the general elections.

The governorship candidate of the party in the state, Rt. Hon. Titus Uba, advised the national leadership of the party to resolve the lingering crisis in the party in order to gather more momentum towards recovering Nigeria from the failed APC led governnment.