APC should be ashamed of how it’s treating Gov Ortom

A week after Benue Governor Samuel Ortom left the APC, hes been called an under-performing governor by his old party, he’s been linked with the herdsmen killings in his State, eight members of the Benue House of Assembly

Ortom’s travails are of course political and it will be naïve for anyone not to reach that conclusion. Hours before he left the APC, party Chairman Adams Oshiomhole did all he could to make Ortom change his mind. Oshiomhole’s attempts at cajoling the aggrieved governor didn’t work.

When Ortom finally defected to the PDP, Oshiomhole called him one of the worst things to ever happen to the APC.

“We now have a clean platform to search for a clean and credible candidate from Benue, a candidate that can provide leadership that the great people of Benue state deserve and not someone who seeks to make political capital out of human graves and celebrating the death of his own people.

“He became a candidate by accident and the lesson for our party is that never again should anyone become a candidate on our platform by accident”, Oshiomhole said.

Hours after he left the APC, Ortom will have to answer questions at the EFCC office for allegedly ordering “the withdrawal of N21.3bn from four government accounts in Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank of Nigeria and the United Bank for Africa”.

Punch reports that “on paper, about N19bn out of the money was said to be meant for the payment of six security agencies that had been deployed in the state to address the incessant clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

“However, the EFCC stated that less than N3bn of the money was paid to the security agencies while the remainder could not be accounted for”.

At what point did the EFCC decide to probe Ortom for allegedly frittering billions of Naira belonging to Benue? If investigations into the case started months ago, why is it just being made public? What kind of anti-graft agency willingly lends itself to partisanship like the EFCC does? Why is the EFCC now probing 21 of the 30 lawmakers in Benue, some of whom defected to the PDP with Ortom? Why are Benue lawmakers and Ortom now being tarred with corruption brushes because they now belong to the opposition camp?

It is a travesty that eight members of the Benue State House of Assembly would want to impeach a governor because he’s chosen to defect to the opposition camp. As Ortom puts it: "Whereas police sent away the 22 members last Friday when they wanted to sit, today, the same police provided security for the eight members. As a law-abiding citizen, I believe in the rule of law and I will pursue it to tackle this illegality.

"Is it an offence to join any party of my choice? I appeal to Mr. President to rise and protect our democracy."

Ortom is right. For once, this isn’t about him. It’s about our nascent democracy. Of course if there is sufficient evidence that Ortom has dipped his hands into the Benue treasury, he should be prosecuted in accordance with the laws of the land. But the timing of the EFCC leak and the attempt by a bunch of lawmakers to unseat him is petty, unconstitutional and atrocious politics that should be condemned by all lovers of democracy.

Would the EFCC have gone after Ortom if he were still a member of the APC?

Those who say the EFCC has become a tool for political witch-hunt have been handed yet another case study in the Ortom scenario. The APC and all those who are hell bent on making Ortom suffer on account of his political affiliation should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.