The Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali has been described as a
disgrace to democracy by the Benue State chapter of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), Saturday Sun has reported.
According to Saturday Sun,
Dan-Ali was called a disgrace and told to resign for telling Nigerians
and other members of the public that the attack on two communities in
Benue that led to the death of over 70 innocent people and destruction
of properties worth millions of Naira was as a result of the open
grazing prohibition law enacted by the State Government.
State Chairman of the APC, Abba Yaro who also called for the
resignation of the Defense Minister and an apology to the state in a
statement made available to Sunday Sun averred that the statement
credited to the Defense Minister was a flatly ridiculous absurdity and
the highest level of public disgrace to democracy and the Nigerian
populace.
“By this singular utterance, the Minister of Defence, Col.
Muhammad Mansur Dan Ali (rtd) has inarguably displayed incontestable
lack of the required sensibility and capacity to serve as Defence
Minister in a country of over 180 million people with over 300 ethnic
nationalities.
“As an integral part of the country, Nigeria and as a State
that gave President Muhammadu Buhari an edge in the 2015 general
elections, we demand that Col. Mansur Dan Ali (rtd) resigns his position
as Nigeria’s Defence Minister immediately and tender an unreserved
apology to the good people of Benue State and the country at large.” Yaro said.
The Party questioned the real motive behind Dan-Ali’s statement and
demanded that he publicly explains to the party leadership why his
reckless utterances should not be considered as a deliberate ploy to
truncate the party’s victory in the 2019 general election.
“Through his statement, as an insider, Dan-Ali appears to have
been contracted by the opposition to work against the APC. Minister
Mansur apparently is one of those who are working against the unity of
Nigeria and must be stopped now before he and others with such
parochial, hateful, divisive and repulsive tendencies plunge the country
into deeper crisis.
“In as much as we would not dignify Col. Mansur with obnoxious
affronts, we would again want to inform him that he is not just an
ingrate, but an unrepentant pathological opportunist who was in his farm
working for the PDP when many of us toiled the nooks and crannies of
this country to ensure victory for President Muhammadu Buhari in the
election that brought him (Buhari) to power through which he (Mansur) is
one of the biggest beneficiaries.” the statement added.
The party however declared its support for Governor Samuel Ortom,
and reiterated its commitment towards making the open grazing
prohibition law our number one priority in the State.