We brought you reports about the wheelbarrows that were reportedly distributed to the Youths of Benue State from the stable of their Governor, Samuel Ortom.
Since the picture has gone vial, Nigerians have criticized the governor, demanding for the usefulness of the wheelbarrows to the youth which was branded as “Gov Ortom for you”. A YBL Commenter said:
“Maybe he should handover one of the barrows to his first son as a leading character, then other youth will emulate..let his son be a barrow pusher first..yeye dey smell”
While the Benue State Government has yet to respond to the issue, online publication, Idoma Voice, reports that a member of the All Progressives Congress and councilorship aspirant in the forthcoming local government election in Benue State, Dan Atayi, has described the pictures as “handiwork of Adobe PhotoShop experts.”
Atayi, who is vying for councillorship seat in Okpokwu Local Government Area of the state, said the pictures, which are currently trending on social media, were targeted at rubbishing Governor Samuel Ortom’s integrity.
Reacting to a post on Facebook, Atayi said,
“The administration of Gov Ortom at the state level and that of President Buhari at the Federal level, are keen at encouraging agriculture.
“Today, the women and youths of Eke Ward of Okpokwu LGA of Benue are happy that cassava grains (garri) per basin is now #11000 as against #1500 per basin a year ago.
“All what you see here are Photoshop and not real.”
UPDATE: Find Below a statement from the Chief Press Secretary of the Benue State Government.
ORTOM DID NOT APPROVE INSCRIPTION ON WHEELBARROWS
The attention of Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has been drawn to pictures of wheelbarrows bearing his name and posted on social media suggesting that he plans to empower youths of the state with the carts.We wish to make it clear that the consent of the Governor was not sought and he did not give approval for anyone to inscribe his name on the said wheelbarrows.
Governor Ortom is aware that the wheelbarrows in possession of the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA were recently donated to the state by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, NCFRMI, for victims of crisis in parts of the state so he couldn’t have claimed credit for the gesture.
The Ortom administration has numerous laudable empowerment schemes for youths of Benue but the donation of wheelbarrows to the youths is not one of such schemes.
Consequently, the Governor has directed Secretary to the State Government to issue a query to the Executive Secretary of SEMA to explain why the said action was taken by his office.
Governor Ortom has also directed the agency to immediately remove the inscription from all the affected wheelbarrows.
Terver Akase
Chief Press Secretary
May 18, 2017.
