As the political rivalry continues in Benue State the state governor, Samuel Ortom, on Monday called on his erstwhile political godfather, who is also the senator representing the Benue North-West Senatorial District in the Senate, George Akume, to stop attacking him but highlight his (Akume’s) achievements to his constituents in order to convince them to support his re-election bid to the Senate in 2019.
Ortom, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and ICT Mr Tahav Agerzua, during an interaction with journalists in Makurdi, maintained that Akume should not arrogate power to himself.
“Nobody should think that he can make someone governor, such practice is now alien. Aper Aku became the first civilian governor of Benue State without anyone’s effort, the same goes for Rev.Fr. Moses Adasu. Only God has the prerogative of giving power to whoever He likes,” he said.
The governor’s aide also debunked allegations that his boss recently gave money to the governorship aspirants after a meeting he (Ortom) held with them so that they could step down for him.
“Where will he get such a huge amount of money from?,” Tahav queried.
Tahav said the governor was not afraid of contesting the primary, recalling that in 2015, he ran the entire gamut of the PDP governorship primary before leaving for the APC on the grounds of impunity.
He said, “People should stop setting the governor against other aspirants. Governor Ortom is not afraid of the contest. That is why as a democrat, he even left the APC which offered him an automatic ticket. I believe too, that the PDP will not force Ortom on its members.
“Let all the aspirants canvass for votes from the delegates ahead of the primary.
“Politics is a matter of interest, so if the aspirants feel that their interest is better protected in other political parties, they can move. It is a free world.
“Let me assure everyone including the aspirants that Governor Ortom is a man who believes in the rule of law and due process and is never afraid of contest.
“When we were contesting for the first tenure in 2015, most people knew that Ortom would not get the ticket on the platform of the PDP and we asked him to move out of the PDP but he told us he wanted to complete the entire process.
“Ortom is a due process man. It was when he was kicked out that he decided to explore the window of the APC on the account of impunity that he found in the PDP.
“Unfortunately, the similar situation that he found in the PDP played itself out in the APC and he is back to a reformed, rebranded, refocused, re-energised and reengineered PDP which has apologised for its sins and pledged that it would not condone impunity within its rank again,” Tahav stressed.
