AGAINST all odds, Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has finally returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after much speculation. The governor returned with 13 of the 23 local government chairmen, 276 councillors and 10 out of the 17 lawmakers elected on the platform of All Progressive Congress APC.
Prior to the declaration last Wednesday, Governor Ortom had consulted widely with various segments in the state; the religious body, civil servants, political leaders, traditional rulers as well as the appointees, with all having thrown their weight behind his move.
Youths under the ‘Benue Coalition Youths’ comprising of 40 groups, however, went a little further to force the governor to declare his defection last Wednesday. The youths who said they heard information that the governor would be traveling that day to keep a date with the leaders of the APC, who were wading into the rift between the governor and Senator George Akume, forced the governor to return to the Government House. They reasoned that the governor might be convinced to change his mind and remain in the ruling party if he had attended the meeting.The youths, who spoke through one of their leaders, Pastor Dave Ogbole, maintained that the continuous stay in APC was tantamount to inviting the killer herdsmen to continue to wreak havoc on the innocent people of the state in the next four years.
“We need a leader that will protect us and you have shown that in the past three years but we don’t want you to attend the meeting with the leaders of APC. But if you insist, there is no problem but be ready to crush all of us,” Ogbole threatened.
Above all, the governor heeded the call and dropped the bombshell of his return to the PDP, a declaration which jolted the APC leadership. Now that Ortom has returned to the opposition PDP where he is expected to seek his re-election aspiration, political pundits in the state have stated that the major hurdle for the governor is how to secure the party ticket at the primary.
According to Comrade Adamgbe, Ortom is not new to the internal politics of the opposition PDP in which he is a foundation member in the state till December 2014 when he lost the governorship primary of the party. He opined that Ortom should be able to cross the hurdles, regardless of the opposition that may come up at the primary.
It would be recalled that the governor faced serious opposition in the build-up to his defection, with 13 governorship aspirants on the PDP platform resisting his comeback, possibly for the observers say might be the fact that he would pose a threat to their governorship ambitions.
During the discussion on his return, it was alleged that the governor had made a proposal to the National Working Committee of the party to cede 60 percent of the party structure in the state to him, a demand that was said to have been rejected.
Notwithstanding, the rejection, according to an insider explained that the decision of the governor to return to PDP, despite the grey areas not sorted out, showed that he must have worked out his plans that will ease his emergence as the party’s standard-bearer in the primary.
“Forget all those permutations, the governor had tackled all the stumbling blocks and I bet you in the next few weeks, we will be celebrating a new dawn,” the insider had told Sunday Tribune.
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The Ortom’s supporters see his defection to PDP as the best thing to happen in the political development of the state, pointing that it would spell doom for the APC in the state, which it won in the 2015 presidential election despite it’s a PDP stronghold for years.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune, Chief Aloysius said, “I think with the way things stand now in the state, I doubt if anyone will want to have anything to do with the APC and the reason is because of the manner President Muhammadu Buhari handled the herdsmen killings in the state.
“Ortom knows this very well that if after he had the people of the state behind him at that perilous time and defended the people even to the detriment of his life, he still comes to us to campaign for Buhari or the APC, he will surely pay for it.”
Another political observer in the state, Andrew Ada was of the view that the only obstacle left for the governor is the governorship primary, stating that once this hurdle is crossed, the election may be a walk over, citing the anti-open grazing law enacted by the governor as his people-oriented achievement.
One of the youth leaders, Timothy Hembaor said: “The defection of the governor is a good omen with great impact for the North in coming elections in Benue State.So, with the new party, the governor has moved to we are with him. The fact that we see him as the bastion and protector of Benue people, we have every course to believe that he would continue to protect us as governor.
“Hence, his victory is guaranteed irrespective of any party he joins. I am not partisan; I am only talking about the reelection of an incumbent governor. So, to sum it up, I’m saying that Governor Samuel Ortom will be able to settle down in his new party and win his reelection, because our people are with him.
“As for APC, it is already a dead party in Benue State, because the party produced a presidency that has clearly shown that it is culpable in the massacre in the Middle Belt and Benue State in particular.”
He added: “We are coordinating with like minds and responsible Nigerians to ensure that APC is voted out in the coming elections. I must also tell you that it will be a miracle for Buhari to secure even 10 percent of votes cast in Benue State. We have close to one million votes in Benue and I can assure you that he cannot garner up to 100,000 of our votes. I’m not partisan, I am talking to you as the leader of a particular socio-cultural group who liaises and works directly with the people and I know their disposition in this matter.”
However, the state chapter of the ruling APC, through its director of publicity, Peterhot Apeh, described the defection of the governor as good riddance to bad rubbish, stressing that Ortom’s exit will not have negative impact on the party be it in the state or at the national level.
But the opposition PDP continues to savour the defection of the governor into its fold, leaving the APC to rue its loss albeit secretly, as the coming political battle and its outcome in the state is left solely in the control of time, which will tell which of the parties will have the last laugh.
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