Ortom/Opposition Break 16-Year Old Jink in Benue

Former Minister of State for Trade and Industries, Dr. Samuel Ortom of the All Progressive Congress (APC), has been declared winner of the Benue State governorship election held on Saturday, breaking long years of jinks against the opposition in the state.

Returning Officer for the state, Prof. Istifinus Dafwang, said Ortom polled 422,932 votes to beat seven other contestants.
The results showed that Ortoms’s closest rival in the contest, Mr Terhemen Tarzoor of the PDP scored 313,878 votes, while Mr Caleb Abahnif of APGA had 649 votes, Mr Boniface Umele of ACPN polled 1,431 votes.
Others were, Mr Oglekwu Shadrack of APA, who polled 1,595 votes, William Ligom of the LP with 2,653, Helene Ode of NNPP scored 767 votes and Samuel Gar of SDP polled 589 votes.
The results, however, showed that the PDP would retain its dominance in the state legislature, having won a total of 15 seats as against 14 by the APC and one by the Labour Party.
APC had won two out of the three senatorial seats and a majority of the federal constituencies in the state.
This is the first time that the opposition is defeating an incumbent especially the progressives beating the conservatives
The victory came in spite of the overwhelming odds against his candidature in the Peoples PDP since the warped primaries which made him to defect APC as well as different court cases to stop him.
Before his emergence as the fifth democratically elected governor of Benue State, Chief Ortom served as the elected chairman Guma local government on the platform of Social Democratic Party, (SDP) from 1991-1993.
He later defected to the PDP and in 2000 he was elected State Secretary of the PDP from 2003 to 2006.
Chief Ortom also won the State Vice Chairman of the PDP in 2006 to 2007 before he was elected PDP National Auditor, a position he held until he was appointed Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
However, desirous of leading Benue, Chief Ortom resigned in February this year and joined the 2015 gubernatorial race on the platform of PDP but lost to Mr Terhemen Tarzoor during the December 2014 primaries.
Not deterred, Chief Ortom quickly defected to the leading opposition APC and was unanimously accepted as a consensus candidate.
Though there were the usual political grievances within the ranks and file of the APC but he overcame them and triumphantly emerged as the governor-elect.