Benue PDP/APC bicker over 2019 guber poll result

The Benue State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has castigated the All Progressives Congress (APC), and its defeated governorship candidate in the last general election, Mr. Emmanuel Jime over their recent claim that Governor Samuel Ortom’s victory in the state was a stolen mandate, describing the statement as delusive.

The APC and its candidate in a goodwill message on the occasion of the inaugural June 12 Democracy Day celebration held recently draw similarities between the recognition accorded June 12 election and the Benue 2019 poll.

They assured their supporters that the mandate would be recovered at the tribunal at the end of the day.

But in a swift reaction, the PDP through the State Publicity Secretary, Mr. Bemgba Iortyom, said “they alongside their supporters are apparently drifting further away from reality in their delusion that Jime has a good case at the courts and will soon be installed governor of the state.

“This delusion of theirs is based on claims they are bandying that Governor Ortom’s second term is a stolen one, but the elementary fallacy starring Jime and his supporters in the face is how they could possibly hope to assume the role of the judge in a case they also are parties?

“Furthermore, even the circumstantial facts establish clearly that right from the campaigns to the elections proper, Jime and APC in the state weren’t ready for a free and fair electoral contest.

“While Governor Ortom, together with top leaders of the PDP in the state traversed the length and breadth of the state combing for votes right down to the grassroots, the Benue APC and their candidates were content to wait for “federal might” to merely announce victory in their favour on the day of elections and install Jime as Governor.

“But Benue people gave Governor Ortom their mandate for a second term in office, and this was in defiance of the menacing stance of a ‘federal might’, therefore, it is clear to see that claims of a stolen mandate are merely delusory.

“However, those claims are evidently still the opium deluding APC members to still keep faith with their decaying party,” the PDP added.