The Peoples Democratic Party in Benue State has faulted Minister Designate, Senator George Akume over what it described as “offensive” comments against the administration of Governor Samuel Ortom.
State Publicity Secretary of PDP, Bemgba Iortyom, stated on Friday that the attention of the party had been drawn to disparaging remarks made by the ministerial appointee against the governor which was widely reported in the media was deliberate falsehood.
Iortyom noted that media reports quoted Senator Akume as making the remarks about non-payment of salaries to workers in the state by the governor when a delegation of members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the state paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
“Once again he could not resist the urge to attack the governor as he reportedly ‘expressed concerns about continued non-payment of salaries in Benue State by the current governor Ortom, who he said he brought to power.’
“Benue PDP observes that the above statement represents a desperate attempt to smear Governor Ortom with deliberate falsehood even as it sadly reflects the fact that the defeated Senator remains unwilling to heed the increasing calls for peace and unity of purpose among political leaders in the state,” he stated.
The publicity secretary added that it remained the desire of the PDP in Benue, as indeed that of many, including revered paramount traditional rulers, the Tor Tiv and the Och’Idoma, that there should be peace and unity of purpose among political leaders in the state for progress and development to thrive.
He maintained that, “in the face of such expectations which are well known to Senator Akume, there couldn’t have been a possibly worse start to his ministerial tenure than his attack on Governor Ortom as was widely reported in the media.”
Iortyom contended that, since January, 2018, by which time the Ortom administration came under the sponsorship of the PDP, payment of salaries to all categories of workers in the state had been regular to date, even as Benue State University, payments had been regular right from the inception of the administration in 2015.
Reacting, the APC’s state Publicity Secretary, James Ornguga, posited that the Benue state government should be ashamed, own up to its responsibilities and pay salaries just as Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has sourced money to pay, stressing that as long as huge salary arrears remain unpaid, Akume and indeed the APC in the state would continue to voice it out.
“The PDP as a party should rather be grateful to him for telling the governor the hard truth. Is the APC leader lying? Are Benue workers not owed several months of salary arrears, including the Deputy Governor who is also owed five months arrears?” Ornguga added.
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