Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has defended the presence of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who is also the speaker of the state House of Assembly Titus Uba at the presidential campaign rally of the party’s candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Uba’s participation in the rally yesterday was seen by political pundits as a crack in Ortom’s camp and a possible sign that he has mend fences with Atiku, whom the G-5 governors have opposed over alleged injustice against the southern members of the party.
But in a reaction, through his special adviser to the media and publicity Terver Akase, the governor said “Uba is a PDP candidate and cannot afford to miss the presidential rally when the national chairman, BoT members are there.
“Uba is not Ortom’s candidate, he is PDP candidate, and for Ortom to even allow some of his loyalists to attend Atiku’s presidential campaign rally goes to show that Ortom is not fighting a personal battle, and it also means that he is not out to destroy PDP in the State.
“So, what is happening is not all about Ortom, the struggle in PDP is for justice, the G-5 Governors and Ortom are not fighting for personal war.”
At the rally, the PDP national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, appealed to Ortom who was conspicuously absent at the rally to put the past behind and come back to enable them work for the success of the party at the 2023 polls.
Uba in a welcome address said commended Atiku for coming to Benue despite the lingering crises and appealed to the National leadership of the Party to make the last efforts in resolving the crises
According to Uba, Benue is pure breed of PDP and nothing else, so I want to make one request to the incoming president and the national leadership of the party to make the last efforts of resolving the lingering crises so that together we will be stronger because Nigerians are waiting for PDP.”
Ayu in a remark at the campaign rally held at Aper Aku stadium in Makurdi, the Benue State capital called on aggrieved members of the party to come back and join hands to elect all PDP candidates in the forthcoming elections so as to fight for a true Nigeria.
“I want to emphasized here that PDP is not in any way divided, although there are few of our members who have grievances but we are still talking them, we want to make sure we are back together, one week is enough to change everything, and we will return everybody back”
“I am also appealing to my younger brother Ortom to comeback and join us so that we will together fight for a true Nigeria, I want to tell you that Governor Ortom has nowhere to go, his only house is PDP, and we will be more than happy to receive all of them back, all of you know what we went through hell in the hands of APC in the last 8years, and I believe that only those with mental problem will again vote for APC,” he said.
Earlier, Atiku, who commended Benue people for coming out en-masse to welcome him, sympathised with the family of those who lost their loved ones during the herders/farmers crises, saying as the ‘Zege Mule U Tiv’ and president come 2023 will bring an end to insecurity in the State.
“If you elect me as your president come 2023, I will replicate what I did here, when I visited Benue in 2001, by ensuring that the Fulanis sign a peace accords with their brother the Tivs to ensure that peace return to Benue State”
“As the ‘Food Basket of Nigeria’, I am saddened that our farmers can no longer go to their farms because of insecurity, I want to also assure you that the problem of unemployment of our young people and women will also become a thing of the past that is why in my policy document I said 10billion US dollars will be earmark to empower young men and women, so do not make a mistake of voting APC into power again”
“I am promising you that I will fix roads and rails linking Benue State to address infrastructural deficits, as you all know Benue State has been a gateway to the far North and South that is why we have rail line passing through the State, today, the rails are no longer working, but I want to assure you that if elected, we shall open the rail lines again”
Atiku maintained that as the president of Nigeria, ASUU will no longer go on strike, “i will ensure that all the public Universities are well funded”
Also, Senator Gabriel Suswam, who applauded the people for keeping faith with the party urged them to come out on February 25th to vote for Atiku as president and all the other PDP candidates.
“Let us all come out to show thank you for our brother Atiku who stood for the state in the past, for all of us as members National Assembly in Benue, we are working together to elect Atiku as our next president, so I urge you all to votes all PDP candidates from bottom to top.”
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