Yesterday, the conflict between Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar grew worse.
The former vice president should apologize, according to the governor, for lying about him.
He argued that Atiku ought to publicly apologize to him for claiming that his followers were robbing herders in Benue of their cattle.
Atiku’s private apology to him, according to the governor, was insufficient.
Because of their unbridgeable disagreements, Ortom insisted he is unable to rally support for the PDP candidate.
Olusegun Mimiko, a former governor of Ondo State, also declined the offer to serve as the PDP’s Ondo State coordinator for the presidential campaign, saying he could not turn his back on Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and other chieftains who were advocating for the selection of a national chairman from the South.
Ortom made his remarks while he met with Jemgbah youngsters at the Government House in Makurdi, the state capital, which is run by the Jemgbah Youth Support Group (JYSG).
Also on Tuesday, MINDA Leader of Thought declared they would no longer support Atiku as a result of his remarks about Ortom at the Arewa Consultative Forum meeting in Kaduna.
To support him for the Senate, the youngsters had surrounded the Government House.
Ortom said: “Immediately I heard the news, I sent him a message on WhatsApp and he apologised to me.
“I told him to make the apology public, but he declined, and I am saying he cannot undress an elder like me in public and then, come back to dress me in a room.
“He lied against me and I take exceptions to that because what he said is hate speech.”
The governor refuted Atiku’s assertion that he condemned all Fulani people universally, pointing out that he never made such a statement.
He stressed: “Some Fulani people are my friends. I trust them to a point of even taking them to my bedroom and I have not sent any Fulani man away from Benue.
“It is only the foreign ones that came from Mali, Mauritania, among others, that are terrorising our people.
“Atiku, you have been very unfair to Benue people and Fulani people alone cannot make you the president.”
Despite the PDP problem, Ortom vowed to continue working for the party’s victory in the state at all levels.
No matter what happens, he asserted, a baby cannot be discarded with the birth fluid.
He maintained: “I am committed to the victory of the party at all levels in the state,” he said.
Ortom applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for denouncing the alleged herdsmen’s attacks in Gbeji in the state’s Ukum Local Government Area (LGA).
The governor criticized Atiku for showing no remorse for the flood victims in Benue State.
The group visited the governor, according to Mr. Isaac Mtom, Chairman of the Gboko Local Government Area, to support him in his efforts to advance the community and to denounce Atiku’s outburst.
Mtom claimed that Atiku’s remarks amply demonstrated his ill intentions toward the Benue people.
