After weeks of speculations and consultations with the leadership of his party at both the State and National level, the Governor of Benue State Samuel Ortom finally dumps the ruling party of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Governor who a few weeks back was rumoured to have decamped from the ruling party APC, but later denied it, alongside the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomole at the Party Secretariat in Abuja, has finally defected to the PDP.
Samuel Ortom had earlier said he is meeting with leaders of the party to resolve issues, had said during the swearing-in of some commissioners in Makurdi Benue state, that he has been issued a ‘red card’ by the leadership of the party in the state and he is now outside the ‘pitch’, saying:
“As for the party, I’ve been given the red card and I’m now outside the pitch. So, if I have been given the red card and I’m standing outside, that means I’m a free man.”
“I don’t know what will happen next, but I’m waiting. If others approach me, then I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club.”
“Let party or ethnicity not divide us. I’m a child of destiny and it’s only God
that will decide what I will be. 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”
But a few hours ago, the Governor confirmed the earlier report of his decamping to the opposition party of the Peoples Democratic Party, at a meeting with his Local Government Chairmen and councilors at the state Capital Makurdi.
This move makes him the first Governor to decamp from APC within the last 24-hours, after yesterday’s event at the National Assembly which witnessed mass defection at both houses of the National Assembly from the ruling party to the opposition.
…the story is still developing as we promise to bring you reactions from both the leadership of the APC and the PDP…