GOVERNOR Samuel Ortom, yesterday, withdrew his support for the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.
Ortom said that for Atiku to appoint members of his campaign team in his state without informing him, he is on his own waiting, but when the election comes “we will win according to the election.”
Governor Nyesom Wike had on Monday declared that he will not campaign for the PDP standard bearer because he did not consult him before picking members of his campaign council from the state.
He explained that Atiku’s photos and those of PDP national chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, are missing in the party’s campaign materials in the state because they don’t want him to campaign for the party at the national level.
Toeing Wike’s path, Ortom said he has chosen to stay aloof from Atiku’s presidential bid, even as he demanded an unreserved apology from the former vice president over profane statement allegedly made against him.
Governor Ortom who was reacting to the comments making the rounds on the social media about hate speech the PDP presidential candidate made against him during a media parley in Kaduna and the derogatory condolence message he send to the people of Gbeji where the herders attacked and killed over 36 persons lamented that such utterance should not have come from someone seeking to rule the people.
Ortom stated this at Government House Makurdi during a thanksgiving service at the Chapel of Grace to mark the end of a 30-day fasting and prayers organised by the the Chaplaincy.
Indicating his resolve not to support Atiku, the governor decried a situation where the PDP presidential candidate appointed people in the state as members of his campaign team without his consent.
He said, “What Atiku said about us in Gbeji in respect of the recent massacre by the marauding herdsmen was not correct. Look at the sympathy message coming from the presidency calling on security personnel to apprehend the perpetrators of the dastardly act and the one sent by our presidential candidate, calling for integration so that there will be no more killings. How can such statements come from someone seeking to rule the people?
“It appears that the PDP presidential candidate does not even recognise me as the governor of Benue State because I am not even on his campaign team. He appointed some people in my state as members of his campaign team without my consent.
“So, for me, I am on my own waiting, when election comes we shall win according to the election”.
The governor also explained that tendering public apology would have been enough to placate the people, noting that angry reaction of the Benue people back home would not have been necessary if the presidential candidate had heeded to his wise counsel to quickly make public apology when his careless statement was made public.
He stated that by making those statements, Atiku appears to be working with Miyetti Allah because he used same the language the Fulani sociocultural organisations had been using against him.
Ortom exonerated himself from allegations that he profiled Fulani who are bonafide citizens of the country, noting that he had always been clear about Fulani from other countries, including Niger, Senegal, Mali and Chad, who have vowed to take over Nigeria to become their own country.
