Ortom strengthens alliance with Wike, pulls out Benue support for Atiku

 Governor Samuel Ortom Benue State has strengthened his alliance with Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State in agitation for the resignation of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu,  and appointing a southern national chairman. Ortom, imitating Wike’s claim of disrespect for the governor in Rivers,  said that Atiku dishonored him as Governor, and is working against the interest of Benue State.

Ortom, like Wike,  claimed that Atiku ignored him while selecting members of his presidential campaign team from Benue State. He protested that the PDP presidential candidate did not get his consent before selecting PDP members in Benue into his campaign council.

Ortom had declared: “I am not in his campaign team.

“The people they appointed there, no consent from me. So, I’ll remain on my own. “But I’m waiting; when the election comes, we shall vote the election according to the election.”

Ortom, at the Chapel of Grace, Government House, Makurdi, chided Atiku over his comment on the crisis in Benue State, alleging that Atiku may be identifying with Miyetti Allah, and complaining that the PDP presidential candidate did not make reference to him.

According to the Benue Governor, “It was not correct for a presidential candidate who is seeking to rule the people to say that kind of thing.

“It was very wrong. And it would appear that he doesn’t even reference me and consider me to be a Governor of my state.”

Meanwhile, one of the directors in Atiku Media, and member of the PDP presidential campaign council, Dele Momodu, dismissed Ortom’s Miyetti Allah’s claim against Atiku.  According to Dele Momodu: “To label him an agent of Miyetti-Allah, that’s wrong.

“He can say anything about Atiku Abubakar, but to call him an agent of Miyetti Allah, I disagree vehemently with that.

“If you don’t want to support a man . . . it’s very easy to give a dog a bad name, in order to hang it. But it is wrong to disparage a man who has served his country meritoriously, who has done everything he could for every part of his country . . . but because you are playing politics, because you disagree with him, then, you use such weighty words against him, well, there’s always another time.

“I am telling you that even Governor Wike, who is supposed to be the angriest among them, because he participated in our primaries, he has not used such words against Atiku Abubakar.”