Benue gov says PDP will produce 69 women councillors, 9 female chair persons

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State on Tuesday hinted that the forthcoming local government election in the state would produce 69 women councillors and nine female chairmen in all 23 councils on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). 

Our correspondent reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state had pulled out of the local government election scheduled to hold on May 7 on grounds that the results of the exercise were already determined by the state government.

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The governor however let the cat out of the bag in his goodwill message to mark this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) in which he commended the courage and resilience of Nigerian women to excel even in the face of cultural and socio-economic inhibitions. 

“For instance, since we came in 2015, we have developed a deliberate policy to give women more opportunities to occupy political offices which hitherto was not in place. 

“We have a good number of women as appointees but above all, Benue State under my leadership has given women leadership roles as chairmen of local government areas in the state. 

“In the forthcoming local government elections, our party, the PDP, has liberalised women participation by giving nine slots to women as council chairpersons,” he said.