•Ortom
Benue People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Foundation Group has called on the party in the state to suspend the immediate past Governor of the state, Chief Samuel Ortom for allegedly engaging in anti-party activities.
The group also urged the State Working Committee (SWC), to set up a Disciplinary Committee to investigate the former governor, adding that failure of the SWC the party to suspend the former governor within the next two weeks, the National secretariat of the party should sack the SWC.
Michael Aberagi, the State Coordinator of the group, who disclosed this at a press conference in Makurdi, further alleged that Chief Ortom was responsible for the abysmal performance of the PDP in the 2023 general elections in Benue, reports Daily Independent.
He stated that Chief Ortom had joined forces with others to work against the presidential candidate of the PDP, in the 2023 election by adopting Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and also directed his supporters to vote for Obi.
“Recently, H.E. Samuel Ortom at an event in Rivers state openly declared support for President Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 presidential second term.
“We view these anti-party activities of H.E. Samuel Ortom as the proverbial acts of the man who after eating, breaks the dishes used to serve the food so that no other person benefits from them.”
“Failure of organs of the party at both the state and national levels to do the needful as requested above, the entire membership of the party in the state shall be mobilized to save the party”, he vowed.
However, while reacting to the allegations, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, who described the group as a faceless group, insisted that if it were a credible group, it would have followed the proper channel and procedure of making known its grievances.
While he stated that the secretariat of the PDP in Benue has a record of all registered groups under it, he said the group was not on the list of registered groups with the party. He therefore urged members of the party as well as the public to disregard the allegations.
Iortyom further argued that ordinarily the PDP wouldn’t have responded to the allegations, but had to because the person in question is the leader of the party in the state.
He said, “Ordinarily, we wouldn’t dignify such an outing with a response but for the fact that the person being mentioned happens to be our leader, we make bold to say that the group does not exist within the knowledge of the PDP in the state. We do not know them.
“We are not aware of the existence of such a group. We have several groups that have aligned with the party and we know their members and leadership and we cooperate in areas of interest. This one does not exist to our knowledge.
“We also serve a note of caution to whoever is behind the pseudo group to come before the party to lay their grievances if such person or persons have any. Come before the party and lay your complaints and the party will look into them,” he said.
Iortyom acknowledged that PDP had some misfortunes during the 2023 general elections but explained that “immediately after the elections, the leaders of the party met and identified areas of shortcomings, where they need to make amends and the process of reformation and restructuring has been consistent.”
He insisted that the party is united under the leadership of Chief Samuel Ortom who remains the leader of the party till date and who has been bearing the burden of running the affairs of the party.
He pointed out that, “The man (Ortom), has been carrying on diligently with his duty as the leader of the party and he is responsible for maintaining and sustaining the administration of the party in Benue State.
“The party secretariat is run by the sacrificial efforts that His Excellency has been putting up here on a monthly basis and we feel that any group coming up now with such an action is certainly not within the arm bit of the PDP and we caution them to desist from such acts”, he warned.
