Benue's Governor Ortom rescinds decision to leave APC after Oshiomole intervenes

BENUE State governor Samuel Ortom has rescinded his decision to leave the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in protest against the refusal of the federal government to combat the menace of Fulani herdsmen and disagreements with local APC leaders.

 

Earlier this week, Governor Ortom has announced he was leaving the APC, apparently frustrated with the lack of government action to address the continued menace of herdsmen. More than any other state in Nigeria, Benue has been the victim of hundreds of brutal attacks from Fulani herdsmen who raid rural villages, leaving hundreds dead in their wake.

 

However, in what appears to have been a change of heart after a meeting with the APC chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomole, Governor Ortom said he was still a member of the APC and was impressed with the intervention of the national leadership of the party. According to the governor, he was prepared to give the party the benefit of the doubt.

 

Speaking yesterday after holding a closed-door meeting with Comrade Oshiomole and other members of the APC national working committee at the party secretariat, Governor Ortom announced a reversal of his decision.  He had earlier announced his decision to leave the party which he compared to a football pitch at a public function held in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, on Monday.

 

According to the governor, the Benue State chapter of the APC had given him a red card but that the national leadership had nullified it. It appears that the governor had a major failing out with one of his predecessors Senator George Akume.

 

Governor Ortom said: “It was the Benue APC that gave me a red card not the national APC and I took it that it was enough to make myself available out of the pitch. However, the leadership of the party told me that the decision at the national level is superior to that of any individual or group of people and I think that is good enough.

 

“They have spoken to Senator George Akume, they have spoken to me and the state stakeholders are going to be spoken to and that’s where I belong. We have not concluded the matter, it’s an ongoing process but I always stand for peace and I always want peace to prevail, that’s what I call for."

 

Comrade Oshiomole said the APC did not keep red cards in its cupboard and as such, it could not give what it did not have. He admitted, however, that there could be legitimate basis for disagreements in some state chapters of the party, which his administration was determined to look into in order to resolve them.

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