We’re relieve over Gov Ortom’s exit- APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said that the exit of Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom is a relieve to the party on the grounds that he has crippled the state and will not win a second tenure over his inability to govern the state as expected.

The APC also said that the state party leaders rejected Ortom as his candidature will lead to electoral defeat for number of reasons in the forthcoming general election in 2019.

The APC National Party Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, stated this during a press conference at the party Secretariat in Abuja on Friday.

He said, “From the point of view of our leaders in Benue State, their position was clear that to field Governor Ortom on APC platform in 2019 can only lead to electoral defeat for a number of reasons.

“They reminded us that in spite of the allocation accruing to Benue State, the bailout fund which amount to over N20 billion and the huge sums of money collected from the Paris club refund, he was not paying salaries to Benue workers, including teachers, local government employees and civil servants.

He is owing as much as 12 months salaries. So, the entire economy of Benue State that survives on civil servants salaries is to that effect compromised”.

The National Chairman also said Ortom complicated his actions, and poor judgment of the security situation in the state drawing attention to the fact that some of those that have been arrested as a result of the killings are people who have been associated with him, including people in his employment, especially one, known to have been involved in Boko Haram activities whom he recruited to manage what they called forest guard.

He said, “These people have been arrested and are in police custody. If an appointee of a Governor is involved in a heinous crime, including killing, which will be enough for a governor to worry about.

Instead, he played up the ethnic dimension of criminality, even though some of those killed were killed not by Muslims, but Christians of Benue State origin, including those he employed”.

Oshiomhole also stated that, “it is important that Nigerians understand that the condemnable killings of two Reverend Fathers and some Christians in a church, those who have confessed to these crimes include people who have worked with Governor Ortom and these killings were done few weeks after one of them was extremely critical during his sermon about the governance of the state and the style of governance of the Governor.

“His price obviously was to pay with his dear life and not a few thought that the governor would celebrate that. I am not about to suggest that Governor Ortom might have asked anybody to go and kill anyone, but that some of those involved in Benue State killings are Christians.

That is not to deny that some herdsmen have also been involved in the killings. But the responsibility of any government is not to seek to manipulate this but to confront it”.

Oshiomhole also said that there was also the fact that for three and half years that Ortom has been in office, he cannot point to any concrete project that he has carried out and cannot point to any major project that has been completed.