Ortom expresses shock at Deputy Speaker Wase’s rejection of Diaspora petition

By PETER DURU, Makurdi

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has described as shocking the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives rejection of a petition from the Mutual Union of Tiv in America, MUTA, brought before the House by the member representing Gwer East/Gwer West Federal Constituency, Mr Mark Gbillah.

He said the action amounted to the suppression of the people’s voice.  A development the governor said contravened the very principles upon which the country’s democracy was built.

The Governor in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, noted that “Nigerians home and abroad have a right as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended to express their feelings about affairs in their country.”

While commending the concern shown by MUTA and solidarity of other diaspora groups on the herdsmen crisis in Benue state, Governor Ortom noted that the condition of thousands of people who had been displaced from their ancestral homes as a result of herdsmen attacks and now live in camps in the State deserved the attention and support of other Nigerians.

The governor pointed out that the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission was established to cater for the affairs of the country’s citizens living abroad, and wondered why anyone would now claim to be oblivious of the significant contributions Nigerians living in other countries make to their fatherland.

He commended Mr Gbillah for his calm disposition despite the Deputy Speaker’s utterances and urged the lawmaker not to be discouraged from championing causes in the interest of his people.

“I expect the House of Representatives to overrule the Deputy Speaker and accept the MUTA petition as well as patriotic concerns of other Nigerians bordering on the state of the nation. “I equally call on the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission to intervene in the matter, in order to prevent a repeat of the ugly scenario in the future,” part of the statement read. (Vanguard)