Just a day after his counterpart in Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, made his position known, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has likewise abandoned PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku can choose members of his campaign team in his state without telling Ortom, who remarked yesterday that he is left waiting, but when the election is held, “we will win according to the election.”
Wike had announced on Monday that he would not support the PDP nominee since the candidate had not consulted him before choosing state-based individuals to serve on his campaign council.
He clarified that Atiku’s and Senator Iyorchia Ayu’s images are absent from the PDP’s state campaign materials because the party does not want him to campaign for it on a national level.
Following Wike’s lead, Ortom declared that he has opted to remain impartial toward Atiku’s presidential campaign, even as he requested an unequivocal apology from the former vice president for an alleged profanity he used against him.
In response to comments about the PDP presidential candidate’s hate speech directed at him during a media discussion in Kaduna and the insulting condolence message he sent to the residents of Gbeji, where herders attacked and killed over 36 people, Governor Ortom lamented that such a statement should not have come from someone seeking to rule the people.
At a service of thanksgiving held at the Chapel of Grace at Government House Makurdi to commemorate the conclusion of a 30-day period of fasting and prayer organised by the Chaplaincy, Ortom said as much.
The governor expressed his commitment not to back Atiku by criticising a scenario in which the PDP presidential candidate appointed residents of the state as members of his campaign team without his permission.
He said, “What Atiku said about us in Gbeji in respect of the recent massacre by the marauding herdsmen was not correct. Look at the sympathy message coming from the presidency calling on security personnel to apprehend the perpetrators of the dastardly act and the one sent by our presidential candidate, calling for integration so that there will be no more killings. How can such statements come from someone seeking to rule the people?
“It appears that the PDP presidential candidate does not even recognise me as the governor of Benue State because I am not even on his campaign team. He appointed some people in my state as members of his campaign team without my consent.
“So, for me, I am on my own waiting, when election comes we shall win according to the election”.
The governor added that if the presidential candidate had taken his smart advice to promptly make a public apology after his thoughtless statement was made public, it would not have been necessary for them to experience the outraged reaction of the Benue people at home.
He claimed that because Atiku utilised the same rhetoric the Fulani sociocultural organizations had been using against him, it appears that he is collaborating with Miyetti Allah in making those claims.
By pointing out that he had always been explicit about Fulani from other nations, such as Niger, Senegal, Mali, and Chad, who had pledged to take over Nigeria and create their own country, Ortom disproved claims that he profiled Fulani who are legitimate inhabitants of the nation.