We are not aware of Peter Obi’s visit — Benue Govt

The Benue State Government has denied knowledge of a visit to the state by the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Peter Obi, following reports that his convoy was allegedly blocked by youths.

The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Hyacinth Alia, Kula Tersoo, told Vanguard in a telephone interview on Tuesday that neither the governor nor the state government was aware of Obi’s reported visit to Yelewata, a community in Guma Local Government Area where more than 200 people were killed in a recent attack.

Tersoo said the state government would have expected security agencies to be notified ahead of a visit by a presidential candidate to enable adequate security arrangements.

He said: “Peter Obi is a presidential candidate of a political party and a former two-term governor. He is not a small man in this country. He is supposed to be prepared for and given adequate security.

“If you are visiting a state, the security apparatus of the state is supposed to know. The Commissioner of Police, Director of DSS, Civil Defence and others are supposed to be aware so that they can provide adequate security for you.”

The governor’s spokesman questioned how a presidential candidate could allegedly be stopped by youths if adequate security arrangements had been made for his movement.

He also dismissed any suggestion that Governor Alia would deploy youths to prevent Obi from visiting the state, saying the governor did not promote thuggery.

“Governor Alia does not promote thuggery in Benue State. If Obi is a threat to him, or maybe he felt that Obi’s coming would cause a problem for him, the right thing to do is to get legitimate security operatives to do the needful and not to gather youths or send them to go and block him,” Tersoo said.

According to him, the governor was not briefed by any security agency about Obi’s reported visit.

“But the governor is not aware. So you will even doubt if he came to this state at all,” he said.

Tersoo also recalled a previous claim by Obi that he was stopped from visiting Benue and that shootings occurred when he eventually arrived, saying the state government had sought security reports to establish the circumstances surrounding the allegation.

He said the same question arose over Tuesday’s reported incident, stressing that a visit by a presidential candidate would ordinarily require coordination among security agencies.

“If those people are aware, they are supposed to make adequate security for him such that the youths cannot even stop him. For the youths to have stopped him, it means there was no adequate security, that is, if at all he came. There is something wrong somewhere,” he said.

The denial followed reports that Obi’s convoy was allegedly blocked by a group of youths while attempting to access Benue State.