Attah Ede Makurdi
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, on Thursday, said he did not promise his former Chief of Staff, Pst. Terwase Orbunde or any other aspirant that they would be his successor in 2023.
The Governor made the clarification when stakeholders from the Kwande intermediate area paid him a solidarity visit at the Benue People’s House, Makurdi.
According to him, the clarification became necessary to dismiss insinuations by the former Chief of Staff that he had betrayed him after the party zoned the governsorship position to Vandeikya.
The governor in a press statement issued in Makurdi and made available to newsmen, explained that his former CoS is his brother and friend and they(both) have come a long way.
He maintained that God told me in 1995 that he (Orbunde) would anchor his governorship campaign between 2015 to 2019 when he(Ortom) returned from Zaria after school.
“I came from school in Zaria to inform Orbunde about what God told me. When it was time, he joined me in 2015 to actualise my dream.
“I never promised Orbunde or any of the aspirants that they will succeed me. I am not God to annoint anyone to be governor. That is why I have allowed the process to be followed diligently. How could I have promised him that I will make him governor”.
“With my vast experience in politics, coupled with the guidance from God, l had to allow the stakeholders to select the candidate to brighten the chances of the party winning the election”, the statement read in parts.
Governor Ortom also denied ever receiving any amount from the former Chief of Staff in the course of his governorship campaigns either in 2015 or 2019 as he has claimed.
Governor however stated that the private letter which Orbunde wrote and brought to him in company of two elders from Kwande and Ushongo demanding for a refund of the sum of N160 million from the sale of his house in Abuja, which he later leaked to the social media came to him as a shock.
“Orbunde never gave me money during the governorship campaigns.”
“Those who are close to Orbunde should pray for him. There is an assignment God sent him to do. He should go back to complete that assignment. I am sure God will uplift him,”, Ortomed stressed
On the forthcoming party primary elections into various elective positions, the Governor assured that a level playing field would be provided for those who have been cleared to participate in the exercise as any form of rigging would be met with stiff resistance.
There are strong speculations that Ortom and critical stakeholders are backing the Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Titus Uba to lead the state in 2023.
