Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has reaffirmed his support for his counterpart in Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, claiming that the PDP leadership has not been fair to the governor.
Insinuations in some media reports that Ortom has split from Wike’s camp as calls for the resignation of PDP Chairman Iyorchia Ayu become louder were also denied by Ortom as a hoax.
Both Ortom and Ayu are from the northern Nigerian state of Benue, and the former has admitted that he worked for the latter to hold the position.
However, since Atiku Abubakar won the PDP presidential primaries in May, Wike and some other current and former governors of the party have pushed for Ayu to step down and make way for a southerner.
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They contended that northerners cannot hold both jobs and cited Ayu’s pre-primary pledge to quit should a northerner emerge as the presidential candidate of the party. As a result of the issue and Ayu’s insistence that he won’t resign until after his four-year tenure, the party has been ripped apart.
Ortom, a well-known figure in Wike’s camp who finished second in the Atiku-won presidential primary, allegedly contradicted the Rivers governor on Monday by asserting that he helped Ayu win the PDP chairmanship and hence cannot seek to have him ousted.
But Ortom said in a statement signed on Tuesday, September 27, 2022 by Nathaniel Ikyur that “There is no breaking away from our group. I still sympathize with Wike for the injustices meted out on him and our group.”
“I just came back from London this morning with Wike and I still maintain my stand on what I said. I have not moved away from there. The party leadership has not been fair to Governor Wike based on the activities that took place during the convention and after the convention.
“They have not been able to adequately deploy the internal conflict resolution mechanism of the party to resolve those issues. So I still sympathize and stand with Wike and let the leadership of the party at the national level do the right thing. It is not too late to do so,” Ortom was quoted as saying.
