The Benue Youth Forum, on Sunday, praised Governor Samuel Ortom for showing true leadership in the handling of the End SARS protest.
The Youth Forum in a statement by the President,Terrence Kuanum, commended the Governor for standing with the people.firmly with the youths of Benue.
Kuanum said Ortom personally met and addressed the End SARS protesters at Benue Peoples House gate and commended them for conducting themselves peacefully and orderly during the protest.
According to him, all these took place because of the open door policy the Governor has established with his people by personally getting involved to provide solutions to their challenges.
“It is on record that soon after the Dangote group with other private bodies under the aegis of CACOVID donated palliatives to Benue State, Governor Ortom in his proactive manner kept calling on the monitoring team of the CACOVID group to come and supervise the distribution of the palliatives in Benue State.
“Eventually, the palliatives were transparently distributed to the 23 local government areas of the state in the full glare of Benue SEMA, Local Government Chairmen, Security Agencies, Civil Society, CAN, JNI, Traditional rulers, Community Leaders and CACOVID Monitoring and Evaluation Team.
“After the palliatives were distributed, complaints got to the Governor that there was diversion of the items in Oju local government area and immediately, Governor Ortom set up a Committee headed by Secretary to the State Government, Professor Anthony Ijohor, SAN, to investigate the allegation of palliatives diversion in Oju.
“The Governor, however, vowed to sanction whoever is found culpable in the matter and this is why Benue is peaceful today despite the fact that other states are witnessing violent protests with the youths breaking warehouses to find hoarded palliatives.
“This credit goes to Governor Ortom’s vision, sincerity and transparency in ensuring that the palliatives were all distributed to the poorest of the poor in Benue State.
“When the protests turned violent and the entire country went in flames followed by burning of public and private properties and looting of palliatives stored by various State Governments, all eyes in Benue were on Governor Ortom to prove his prudence and accountability in public service, and to the surprise of many, all the warehouses that are used by the State Emergency Agency (SEMA ) were thrown open to the Benue public and Media. The people confirmed that truly, all palliatives reached the poorest of the poor in the State.
“We commend Governor Samuel Ortom for once again making Benue proud and showing us all that truly, our welfare is a top priority to him.
“We call on Benue people to stand by the Governor in ensuring that the state remains peaceful. We encourage our members (Benue Youths to be vigilant so as to prevent any hoodlum from infiltrating our ranks to push us to avoidable violence.
“While we sympathize with other states which are counting their losses as a result of the ongoing crisis, we must appreciate our people for showing maturity in the face of temptations. This firm resolve for peace has been expressed across party lines and the winner is Benue State.
“May God continue to bless our dear state,” the statement said.
