Infighting Over Ortom Puts Benue PDP In Disarray

Group Warns Over Plot To Suspend Former Governor

Attempt at forcing former governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, by hawks within the Peoples’ Democratic  Party, PDP, faces stiff opposition after a group, Benue Integrity Group (BIG), insisted that the former governor would not be made a victim of double standards.

PDP Foundation, a an interest group within the party, recently called for the suspension of Ortom over his open support for presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, in the 2023 general election.

BIG has however told the national secretariat of the party that Ortom hasnt done anything different what his predecessor, Gabriel Suswam did.

They  went further  to remind the party hierarchy that the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar is not free of same allegation being made against Ortom

While Atiku was the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 election, Senator Gabriel Suswam, who was a former governor of the state was also the senatorial candidate of the PDP for Benue North East senatorial district in the last election.

BIG, which was responding to a recent call by PDP Foundation to sanction Or pointed finger at Senator  Suswam as sponsor rival group making allegations at Ortom.

But in a statement signed by the President of BIG, Simon Ashijo; Vice-President, Ogwuche Adanwo, and Secretary, Aondohemba Mnyim, and made available to DDM on Thursday, the group said it was on the vigilance over the matter.

The group argued that both Atiku Abubakar and Senator Gabriel Suswam had previously engaged in worse outings that demanded their suspension from the PDP, but, nothing was done about it.

They observed that while Atiku had walked out of the party during the party’s national convention in 2013 and held a parallel convention, Senator Suswam, on the other hand had called on the people of the state last July, to support, the State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, whereas the PDP candidate, Engr Titus Uba, was in still in court with Alia.

“On August 31, 2013, at Eagle Square, Abuja, during the PDP national convention to elect national officials of the party, Alhaji Atiku sensing imminent defeat of his preferred aspirants, staged a walk-out with 7 Governors, a former national chairman of the PDP, Abubakar Baraje, National Assembly members and delegates from seven states (Rivers, Adamawa, Niger, Sokoto, Kano, Kwara and Jigawa), to hold their own convention.

“That was the day PDP lost the 2015 general elections as Atiku’s move later merged with the APC with PDP governors, 37 House of Representatives members, including the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and over 20 Senators.

“In a similar vein, Chief Samuel Ortom, the then Minister of States for Industry, Trade and Investment and supervising Minister of Aviation was the most popular PDP aspirant in the build up to the 2015 governorship election in Benue State.

“Governor Suswam, for reasons only known to him, out rightly declared that he did not know who would win the PDP primaries but he knew who would lose and that person was no other than Samuel Ortom.

Ortom was chased out of PDP and that led to the party losing the 2015 election in Benue State with Suswam himself losing his Senatorial election.

“However, Ortom in his benevolence and love for PDP left APC in July, 2018 and returned to PDP.

Ortom’s return was the main reason Suswam won the 2019 Senatorial election to represent Benue North East Senatorial district,”BIG said.

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