APC Will Lose In Benue, If It Field Ortom As Candidate ­– Oshiomhole

Adams Oshiomhole, APC National chairman

APC Party Leaders In Benue State Alleged Ortom Is linked To The Killing In The State

Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress, on Friday stated that the party will lose its site in Benue State if it uses Samuel Ortom as its candidate in the 2019 elections.

Oshiomhole stated that leaders in the Benue State APC chapter, has given cogent reasons for the party not to use Ortom as its candidate for second term in office.

He said apart from his failure to pay salaries, despite receiving billions of naira as bailout from the Federal Government, he was also trying to gain political capital from the Fulani killings in his state.

The allegations were made by Oshiomhole in an interview with newsmen at the APC National Secretariat, Abuja.

He stated that the Governor defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress because the party was not ready to field him as their candidate in the 2019 general election.

Oshiomhole said, “From the point of view of our leaders in Benue State, their position was clear. They believed that fielding Governor Ortom on the APC platform in the 2019 governorship election could only lead to electoral defeat for a number of reasons. They reminded us that in spite of the allocations accruing to the state and in spite of the bailout, amounting to over N20bn, which they had received in two instalments of N10bn each, and in addition to the huge sums of money that the state collected from the Paris Club Refund, Governor Ortom has not, and is not paying salaries to workers as and when due.”

In his statement it was alleged that the party leaders in the state claimed that the killings that took place in the state is linked to the Governor.

He said, “For any man of honour, if an appointee of government is involved in heinous crimes, including killing, that should be enough for a governor to worry.

“Instead, Governor Ortom played up the ethnic dimension of criminality, whereas in truth, some of those who have been killed were not killed by Muslims; they were killed by Christians of Benue State origin, including those he employed.

“So, Ortom’s incapacity to manage it and even his willingness to seek to make political capital of the death of the Benue people is most unfortunate because I believe that even in politics, there should be a level of morality.”

While reacting to the allegation, Ortom, through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akasee, said just a week after the National Chairman of the party described him as a star of the party, he is now describing as a bad governor.

He said, “If Oshiomhole was a man of honour, he would have held on to his words when he described Governor Ortom as a star of the party. Governor Ortom did an amnesty programme, where thousands of youths were disarmed and over 1,000 arms were recovered.

“The same governor cannot turn round and arm youths to kill the people. Benue State has accused the Miyetti Allah group of the killings in Benue, but the APC-led government has not deemed it fit to invite those people for questioning.“