Apart from directing top security officials to persuade the government on the security implications of the mass burial, the president was also said to have personally contacted Mr. Ortom on the telephone.
Indications have emerged that President Muhammadu Buhari, and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, opposed the widely broadcast mass burial of the 73 victims of herdsmen killings in Benue State.
Days before the burial, the president was said to have made frantic efforts at ensuring the victims were buried in their respective villages and not brought to Makurdi for a mass internment.
Mr. Osinbajo was also said to have prevailed on the state government to jettison the idea of conducting a mass burial for security reasons.
A top security source told this newspaper, Mr. Buhari had advised the state Governor, Samuel Ortom, to discard the idea of holding a mass burial as soon as it was conceived.
According to the source, the president also advised against live telecast of the activities for the burial.
Apart from directing top security officials to persuade the government on the security implications of the mass burial, the president was also said to have personally contacted Mr. Ortom on the telephone to shelve the idea.
Mr. Osinbajo was also said to have contacted the Benue governor and appealed for caution in the way he was handling the burial plans.
“The president did not want the state government to go ahead with the mass burial and had done everything humanly possible to stop it,” the source said.
“Days before the burial, both the president and his vice prevailed on the state government not to go ahead with the programme, citing security reasons.
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“But stakeholders in the state insisted that the activities must continue and all the corpses, which had already been brought to Makurdi in preparation for the mass burial should not be returned.”
The source said the advice to shelve the mass burial was stoutly resisted by stakeholders, who accused the president of abandoning the people of the state.
According to him, while Mr. Buhari lost the 2015 election in Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba states, he got massive votes from Benue.
“We do not understand why President Buhari, who promised to provide security for our people when he came to IBB Square to campaign for votes would allow Miyetti Allah, a group he is a grand patron, to kill our people at will,” the source continued.
When contacted to speak on the issue, the Chief Press Secretary to the Benue State Governor, Terver Akase, said he was not aware of any pressure from the presidency to stop the mass burial.
He, however, maintained that major television stations in the country will carry a documentary on the burial soon.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, would not pick calls to his telephone when contacted by this newspaper.
However, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Femi Adesina, said he was not competent to speak on the issue.
In apparent disregard to Mr. Buhari’s advice, thousands converged on Makurdi on Thursday to bid farewell to victims of the Fulani herdsmen massacre in Guma and Logo Local Government Areas.
Addressing the mourners, Mr. Ortom had challenged President Buhari to arrest the leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN).
He said the deployment of soldiers to the state has paid off with the arrest of three armed herdsmen who engaged troops in a shootout on Wednesday night.
Mr. Ortom vowed to continue with the implementation of the Anti-Open Grazing law in the state, saying before its passage, every stakeholder was given an opportunity to make inputs.
“These killings are all about land but we will not be cowed or intimidated. They said our people stole one 1,000 and I say that is an afterthought,” the governor said.
