The governor of Benue State, Dr. Samuel Ortom has hinted that he was quitting the All Progressives Congress (APC) because the part had given him a red card.
Speaking in Makurdi on Monday at the inauguration of a special adviser to the bureau of local government and chieftaincy affairs, Mr. Jerome Torshimbe, the governor said he was yet to decide which party he would align with adding that he was waiting for any political party that would absorb him.
“As for party, I have been given a red card and I’m outside the pitch. So, if I have been given a red card and I’m standing outside, I’m a free man.
“So, I don’t know what will happen next but I’m waiting. If others approach me I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club. I’m a child of destiny and it’s only a God that will decide what I will be,” he said.
Ortom said the challenges facing the state would be surmounted and called for togetherness and “let party or ethnicity not divide us.”
“Many people have been asking that as we dedicated the state to God, we are still facing challenges but the Israelites passed through the wilderness, where there were giants, wild animals and other things that are harmful but God took them to the Promised Land.
“All these challenges that we see today, we shall see them no more. All that we are required to do is not to begin to be wayward in our conduct but to move to the righteous side of God. Once we do that, things will work out for our good.
“Looking at what is happening to us sometimes I’m tempted to think that we are dying like people who do not have God. But we must choose the path of working with God, obeying and serving him. We need to come together; let party or ethnicity not divide us,” he said.
As for party, I have been given a red card and I’m outside the pitch. So, if I have been given a red card and I’m standing outside, I’m a free man.
“So, I don’t know what will happen next but I’m waiting. If others approach me I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club. I’m a child of destiny and it’s only a God that will decide what I will be.”
Reacting to Ortom’s exit, the national chairman of the APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole described Ortom as “senior member of the APC” who did tell him (Oshiomhole) times without number that he would not leave the APC unless he was pushed out.
“I know that Governor Ortom is a very senior member of the party and he has said so repeatedly in print and has said to me one-on-one that he will not leave the APC unless he is pushed out.
“I have, since I assumed the chairmanship of this party along with my colleagues in the NWC, not shut out any governor and certainly not Governor Ortom.
“And in these days of social media, I will not be responding on the basis of rumours and unverified reports,” said Oshiomhole.
