Mr. Apeh Peterhot, the Director of Publicity, APC in Benue believes that the ruling party will retain the state in 2019. In this interview, he spoke on various issues including why people of the state will dump Governor Samuel Ortom who has defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

How bright are the chances of the governorship candidate of your party, the APC in the 2019 general elections? 

 There is no gainsaying that the Benue electorate know the difference between light and darkness, and have resolved to go for light which is Emmanuel Jime, the APC candidate. 

The governorship candidate of the APC in the state is someone who is well known especially as he was one of those who contested for the same seat in 2015. Do you think he will be able to unseat Ortom, a sitting governor in the election?

 The love for our candidate, Emmanuel Jime cuts across party politics. That’s why you see even some PDP members agitating for the exit of the incumbent governor, Samuel Ortom who has shown practically that he lacks the wherewithal to take the state to another level. Our chances of winning the 2019 general election are very bright.  In fact, it is 70 per cent achievable because the options left for Benue electorates are a simple one; it’s between darkness and light; it’s between a grossly incompetent sitting governor who practically lacks the matrix of governance, and a robustly experienced lawyer who has displayed competence in his chosen career. He performed excellently well when he was in the House of Representatives.

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 Don’t you think that the Fulani pogrom on the state earlier this year is capable of affecting the chances of your party in the forthcoming elections?

It is apparently misleading for the outgoing governor, Mr. Samuel Ortom, to make things appear like he’s accepted by the Benue electorates who are angry at him for impoverishing them as a result of the nonpayment of salaries and diversion of public funds for his family business. Ortom’s seeming acceptance is only on the pages of newspapers and the social media because he can afford them. But let me assure you that once the election is free and fair as promised by the INEC, before 4pm on the election day, our candidate would be declared winner by the electoral umpire. 

On the Fulani crisis in some parts of the country earlier this year, the public is aware that there is more to it than meets the eyes. The governor, Ortom, knowing full well that he has no projects or infrastructure to fall back to as his campaign tool decided to politicise the killings because he knew he was on his way from the APC. He made it look like the crisis started and ended only in Benue or under the Buhari administration. You see, the issue of Fulani crisis is just being politicised by only the drowning governor because he knows President Buhari has achieved so much and done so well in the area of insecurity in the country.