Atiku’s Camp Kick As Ortom Says PDP Must Address Governors Grievances Or Lose 2023 Election

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to address the grievances of some members of the party.

The Benue State Governor said the opposition party should forget about the 2023 presidential election if it fails to address the grievances of five governors.

Naija News reports that Governor Nyesom Wike (Rivers) and four of his colleagues, Ortom, Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), had pulled out of the Atiku Abubakar the presidential, until the alleged marginalisation of the south was redressed.

Speaking on Tuesday in Makurdi during the inauguration of the Benue PDP Campaign Council, Ortom said that those who felt the five aggrieved governors did not matter were doing the party a disservice.

He said, “There is no way PDP will win elections with the kind of massive conflict they had, especially, the five governors we are talking about are those who won elections in their respective states and you think you can ignore them?”

Ortom called on the national leadership of the party to rise to the occasion and resolve the issues at stake, as it was impossible to move forward without addressing the issues the five governors had raised.

“But if a particular candidate said Governor Ortom does not matter, the leader of the party in Benue did not matter, Benue votes do not matter, that is where we will have issues,” he added.

2015 Not 2023

Reacting to Ortom’s comment, the Director of Strategic Communications of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council, Dele Momodu asked the Benue State Governor not to compare the circumstances that led to the defection of five governors of the party to All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 elections to the current crisis in PDP.

Momodu, speaking at a press conference, said the threat by the five governors not to work for the election of Atiku in the 2023 election would not have the consequences the 2013 situation had on the 2015 election.

He explained that 2022 was not like 2015, because APC had ruined Nigeria, to the extent that the economy had become comatose, with insecurity all over the country, and the Naira exchanging at almost N800 to a United States Dollar.

According to the media mogul, while the prevailing circumstance in 2015 was such that there was nothing PDP would have done to win the election, with Atiku, the 2022 situation was different from the President Goodluck Jonathan era.

He said the exit of the seven governors and Atiku in 2013 played into the hands of the opposition, noting, “What you have today is a candidate who’s the most experienced, most net worth, and governors angry is personal and not about PDP not delivering on its mandate.”

He said the Naira was already taking a hit against foreign currencies, especially, the United States Dollar, because the current administration had shown gross incompetence in the management of the economy.

Momodu stated that despite denials by the federal government, the security situation in the country was terrible.