12 PDP aspirants kick, refuse to step down for Ortom

– 12 PDP governorship aspirants have refused to step down for Governor Ortom

– The 12 aspirants insisted on contesting for the party’s primary election

Twelve governorship aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Benue state have refused to step down for Governor Samuel Ortom, who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

One of the aspirants, Dr Tivlumun Nyitse, revealed what transpired during a meeting between Governor Ortom and other governorship aspirants on the PDP platform.

Nyitse said: “At the meeting, he told us that he was back to the PDP and that he too wanted to run. We told him he was welcome and that he should toe the line.

“Ortom can’t eat there (APC) and come back to also take other people’s food. These people have laboured so hard and remain committed to the party till now. People have worked for the party all this while and then you come back and take what belongs to them.

“Ortom is going to run like every other aspirant in the primaries and if he wins, so be it; nobody is going to step down for him.

“I don’t know what the national leadership of the party is thinking towards the candidature of Ortom but we in PDP in Benue would not allow any decision not palatable to stand.”

Reacting to Nyitse, Ortom’s Special Adviser on Media and Information and Communications Technology, Tahav Agerzua, said: “If you talk about Ortom coming to hijack what belongs to PDP members, what about the time that Ortom was in the PDP and other people were not there at all and were just civil servants?

“None of them had got the ticket yet, the process is still on. I think they should concentrate on telling the people why they are best qualified instead of succumbing to Ortom phobia.”

“What is happening now is Ortom phobia. In a democracy, the more the merrier. So many more people are still coming because power belongs to God and to the people. So, whoever the party chooses will become the candidate.”

Meanwhile, TRACK NEWS earlier reported that Ortom said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has subjected state government officials to intense grilling, saying that the persecution was becoming “ridiculous”.

Ortom’s chief press secretary, Mr Terver Akase, who raised the alarm on Wednesday, August 15 in Makurdi, said no day passes without the commission adding one more angle to their harassment of Benue officials.