Ortom to Oshiomhole: You’re party chairman, not union leader

Samuel Ortom, has fired back at the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, advising him to learn the difference between a party chairman and a union leader

Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has fired back at the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, advising him to learn the difference between a party chairman and a union leader.

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Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, yesterday, Ortom stated that Oshiomhole’s recent diatribe against him has revealed the plot hatched by APC leaders within and outside Benue to throw the state into political crisis ahead of the 2019 elections.

“On July 19, 2018, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole poured encomiums on Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom. Oshiomhole was addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Abuja shortly after his meeting with Ortom whom he described as one of the star performers of the APC.

“He also described Ortom as an honourable man. Oshiomhole went further to state that the party would do everything to keep the Benue State governor within its fold like a highly valued diamond and not let him defect to another party.

“The APC National Chairman was right when he commended Ortom over his performance in the last three years. Oshiomhole’s commendation of the governor was in agreement with the unanimous endorsement the Benue State chapter of the APC gave him during its state congress recently.

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“We were, however, shocked when a few days later after Ortom’s defection from APC, we read Oshiomhole making a 180 degrees turn to launch verbal attacks on the governor,” Akase said. Akase opined that Oshiomhole’s sudden aggression towards Ortom had revealed, among other things, the true oppressive intentions of the APC against Nigerians.

“Oshiomhole appears to be flying a kite of an agenda to intimidate and suppress Nigerians who desire freedom from a party which has clearly failed to secure lives and property, thereby ushering in an orgy of violence never before witnessed in the history of the country.

“Oshiomhole’s diatribe against Ortom has also revealed the plot hatched by APC leaders within and outside Benue to throw the state into political crisis ahead of the 2019 elections,” he said.

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Akase, while urging Oshiomhole to rather concentrate on telling Nigerians why they should vote for APC next year instead of embarking on a voyage of attacks on perceived opponents, maintained that his unprovoked attack on Ortom and other members of the opposition had not translated to a single vote for the APC.

“A man of supposed high political stature like Oshiomhole should rather be out to court the sympathy of the very few key actors still left in the APC even in the face of unprecedented frustration by anomalies in the party instead of launching laughable verbal assaults on those who can no longer stand the strange happenings within the party.”