Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described reports of the defection by Governor Samuel Ortom from the party as ‘a fabricated falsehood and handiwork of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Chairman of the APC in the state, Comrade Abba Yaro, in a statement signed by the Party’s Director of Publicity, Comrade Peterhot Apeh, while dispelling the report as a mere rumour, he also informed that the Governor is still very much in the ruling party.
Said he, “Those carrying rumours of Governor Ortom’s purported defection from the party ahead of the 2019 elections are merely fabricating heaps of malicious propaganda to cause disaffection between the Benue State governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom and the party leadership at the national level.”
“It is noteworthy to inform the public that Governor Samuel Ortom is very much with the All Progressives Congress party. There’s no rift between us in Benue and the party leadership in Abuja. We are working harmoniously to ensure security of our people. The Governor and the party leadership are trying their best to proffer lasting solution to the perennial herders/farmers clashes.
The APC chairman said “the rumour was the handiwork of the opposition and other recalcitrant elements whose job was to formulate non-existing stories to get one square meal from their paymasters who are trigger ready with our stolen monies to sponsor falsehood against the APC in their malaise dysphoria.”
The APC Chairman noted that since elections are at the corners, there would be all forms of spurious sponsorship of injurious media campaigns by “unscrupulous Abuja-based politicians, especially those PDP scoundrels that were shamefully rejected by Nigerians in the 2015 general elections”.
Yaro also advised “those being used against Governor Ortom to strive more for their futures and the development of the state rather than play to the hands of dubious politicians who, in their dumbness, are only trading their future but training own children to take over from them as demigods.”
The party chairman, however, assured that Governor Ortom, as a grassroots mobiliser, would deliver the state for the party in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.