Benue Visit: I Provided Vehicle For Peter Obi – Ortom

Former Governor Samuel Ortom has confirmed that he provided vehicle to convey Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to his aborted Yelewata condolence visit to the victims of June 13, 2025 terrorist attack.

Recall that suspected thugs had attack Obi’s convoy along Gboko-Makurdi Expressway last Tuesday.

The attack had prevented Obi from visiting Yelwata in Guma Local Government Area to sympathise with victims as he went back without visiting the area.

On Thursday, Benue State governor, Hyacinth Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Sir Tersoo Kula, accused former governor Ortom of providing vehicles for Peter Obi during his visit in the state and secretly support him for presidential elections.

Addressing a news conference on Friday in Makurdi, Ortom’s media consultant and former Special Adviser media and publicity, Dr Terver Akase, explained why his principal provided vehicle to Obi despite his support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of 2027.

According to Akase, “Chief Samuel Ortom is a statesman who understands the demands of public service and the obligations that come with leadership. It is therefore both ridiculous and shameful for anyone to attempt to criminalize or politicize the simple act of making a vehicle available to a fellow Nigerian leader.

“Peter Obi is a former Governor, a presidential candidate and one of the most prominent political figures in the country. Imagine how it would have sounded if Chief Ortom had refused to assist him with transportation while he was in Benue on a humanitarian mission to visit internally displaced persons.

“Such a refusal would rightly have been viewed as petty, inhospitable and beneath the dignity of a former governor. Indeed, extending such a courtesy should ordinarily have been the responsibility of the Benue State Government itself, given the status of the visitor. That the Alia administration is now trying to make a controversy out of what was merely a humane, courteous and statesmanlike gesture exposes the poverty of its argument and the desperation behind its propaganda.

“In other climes, leaders are commended for extending courtesies across political divides, not vilified for doing so. The attempt to portray an act of hospitality as evidence of wrongdoing is both intellectually dishonest and politically immature.

On the allegation that Ortom is secretly supporting Peter Obi while publicly supporting President Bola Tinubu, the spokesman said nothing could be more absurd. He said Ortom has never hidden his political positions, adding that he supported Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election, he did so openly and courageously.

“Likewise, when he declared support for President Tinubu in late 2023, he did so publicly and has remained consistent in that position to this day. Unlike those who speak from both sides of their mouths. Former governor Samuel Ortom is not supporting Peter Obi in 2027 elections,” he said.

Ortom said he enjoyed such privileges when he visits other states.

“Ortom has enjoyed privileges traveling to other states. The state government should have graciously sent security and vehicles to take Peter Obi to go and see the IDPs. This man is not coming in his interest is coming to see your people. But because you have told the world that there are no IDPs anymore in Benue, you don’t want a Peter Obi or any other person to visit the IDPs because they will expose the lie that you have put out there”

The former governor advised that politics should not divide Nigerians, “That is why Obi was stopped. And that is why they are brandishing this falsehood that Samuel Otom is supporting Obi and not Bola Tinubu. Chief Ortom is supporting President Bola Tinubu for 2027, he is not supporting Peter Obi and he has made it clear. But if Obi requests that Chief Ortom should help him with a vehicle to take him to town, it would be a national headline if Ortom refuses. Governor Alia should have been the one to do it, not minding that Obi is campaigning against the leader of his party. We are one nation, we are one country, we are one people. Politics should not divide us to an extent that we are hostile to political opponents” he said.

Ortom added, “The attempt to link him simultaneously to Obi’s visit and to the reported blockade of Obi’s movement is not only contradictory but intellectually bankrupt. The allegation collapses under the weight of its own illogic. Evidence abounds that some of the youths who blocked Obi’s way into Makurdi township are often seen around the governor chanting war slogans including “No Alia, no Benue” he said.