The face-off between Nigerian police and Benue state government took a new twist Tuesday as public relations officer of the force, Mr Jimoh Moshood, described Governor Samuel Ortom as a “drowning man”.

Moshood said this on a breakfast television program, Sunrise Daily, aired on Channels Television.

“We don’t join issues with a drowning man; Governor Ortom is a drowning man,” he said when asked to comment on the governor’s recent statement.

When asked by the presenter to withdraw the statement, he insisted he would not.

“I will not withdraw for the purpose of this discussion because he called my IGP incompetent,” the spokesman said.

The Benue governor had in a statement urged Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, to resign over his handling of the killings in his state by suspected herdsmen.

The governor said Idris was incompetent, and had taken side with the killer herdsmen.

He said this in reaction to a comment by the police chief that the killings in Benue was instigated by the state’s new anti-open grazing law.

PT