Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has reiterated that he would continue to stand with his Rivers State counterpart, Governor Nyesom Wike on the injustice meted out to him and other members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, assuring that he has not broken ties with the Rivers Governor.
He described media reports to the contrary as false and misleading.
The Governor who made the clarification Tuesday shortly after presiding over the Benue North-West Senatorial district PDP caucus meeting in Makurdi, assured that he would always be on the side of the Rivers State Governor because in would always stand on the side of truth and justice.
He said, “the news report that I disassociated from Governor Wike is misleading. 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.
“I still sympathize with Wike for the injustices meted out to him and our group.”
The Governor further stated that “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.
“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.
“Politics is about interest, and where your interest is not protected, you have the right to protest. We remain committed to the PDP but still want the right thing to be done so that everybody will be carried along.”
While expressing hope the nagging issues would be addressed following the initiative of the Board of Trustees, BoT the Governor said, “on the issue in contention about the National Chairman, the BoT, was here some few days ago and we deliberated on the matter. They sought to know what my feeling was about the crisis and I told them the truth as far as I am concerned.
“I gave them my recommendations and I hope that justice will be done so that our party will gain its position to take over power in 2023.”
The Governor maintained that despite the issues at the national level, “Benue State does not have any problem, from bottom to top, we are good to go. As far as our party is concerned. I am working for our candidates.”
Governor Ortom insisted that he would not work against the PDP but support every candidate, stressing “that does not mean I am not aggrieved, Wike is aggrieved and I am aggrieved too.”
On the outcome of the caucus meeting, Governor Ortom said after due consultations, a Benue North-West Senatorial campaign team for the Senate seat would be constituted; “it would be integrated into the main campaign council of PDP in the state,” he said.