Everything points to Gov Ortom dumping APC for PDP

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has given sufficient hint to suggest that his sojourn with the governing APC is nearing an eventful end.

You only need to look at his body language these days and read between the lines of what he says.

After killer herdsmen left 73 persons dead in Benue in the first week of the new year, Ortom called out the Buhari led federal government for not doing enough to secure his people.

'Federal government has abandoned us'

“Let me be frank. The federal government has not done enough.

"The leadership of Miyetti Allah called the law names; that it was draconian and had no place in the 21st century. We saw that as a threat to our existence and in June 2016, we reported to the then acting president and to our surprise, these people were not apprehended.

"When they saw that no one was going to apprehend them, they went further to issue more threats. In October 2016, we reminded the IGP, the DSS and the NSA of the potential violence that we faced in Benue State as a result of the threat from the Miyetti Allah.

“We specifically demanded that the two officers of the Miyetti Allah, the secretary and the president, be arrested, but unfortunately, they were not arrested. I do not know why the federal government has abandoned us. If they had acted that time, we would not have gotten to where we are today”, Ortom had said.

No visits

This week, Ortom told everyone who cared to listen that it is unfair that Buhari hasn’t visited Benue in the face of the mindless killings of his people. As a consequence, he says, he won’t be caught campaigning for Buhari’s re-election—at least for the moment.

“When we visited, we even invited the president to come to Benue state and pay his condolences to his people… Because we are members of the party, he is our president. If these people are attacking us, we expect him to give us security.

“He has done a number of things. He directed NEMA to provide relief materials, he also asked for security to be beefed up but I am not satisfied with what the presidency is doing on this matter. There is no doubt about that.

“I ask for justice for Benue people because we have not been treated fairly,” Ortom said.

Those do not sound like the words of a man who is still loyal to his party or the president who is leader of his party.

Chemistry

When Governors Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose visited Ortom after the latest bouts of killings, you could discern the chemistry among all three in there somewhere.

Asked if he was on the verge of dumping the APC, Ortom said; “I am a member of the APC and about the issue of joining another vehicle, Benue people are here and they are hearing you. I cannot decide for Benue people, the people will decide, it is what they want that I will want. Anything Benue people say I should do, I will do”.

For some background, Ortom was at home in the PDP until the eve of the 2015 general elections. He served as Deputy Chairman of the PDP in Benue; he was Director of Administration and Logistics of the Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Organization in 2011.

Ortom also served as national auditor of the PDP before his appointment as Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the Goodluck Jonathan administration in July 2011.

He joined the APC after the PDP denied him the governorship ticket at the ward congresses. Ortom alleged that the congress election process was “fraught with injustice and irregularities.”

He promptly defected to the APC, picked the governorship ticket of his new party and was elected governor of Benue.

So, here’s a PDP man through and through--a dyed in the wool one at that--who appears to have missed home and who seems as though he can’t wait to return to the warm embrace of his folks.

He’s moved camps before in a heartbeat. What’s to say he won’t do so again?