The Benue State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Governor Samuel Ortom, yesterday, traded blames over President Muhammadu Buhari following the recent altercation between the governor and the presidency.
Ortom had invited the opposition APC to the state’s regular stakeholders meeting scheduled for Monday when the party in response lambasted him for his brawl with the presidency.
The State Caretaker Publicity Secretary of APC, James Ornguga, had earlier in a statement made available to our correspondent, expressed dismay over the invitation for a meeting at the Government House, Makurdi.
“This is not the first time our party members have received such invitation from the present-day Benue State Government but we are particularly apprehensive about the recent grandstanding of Governor Samuel Ortom and his team, especially now that they are quick to malign and castigate the federal government for failing the Benue people without presenting proofs of the governor’s love for the state which should manifest through a credible scorecard of overwhelming tactile projects.
“While we have shown understanding with the Ortom government in the past, even as the opposition by donating for free, ideas that would improve the state, it is now dazzling that such good ideas are not implemented and the administration is purely fixated on trivialities thereby programmed to fail such that nothing on earth could alter its course.
“The governor, clearly having failed to live up to the basic requirements of his leadership mandate, has resorted to baseless blame games and media denigration of President Muhammadu Buhari who up till now, has more verifiable projects in Benue than the governor.
“With this conspicuous crave by the governor to canonize himself and demonize President Buhari and the APC, we warn all APC members to steer clear of these so-called stakeholders’ meetings that are manifestly intended to legitimise the governor’s unholy TV outbursts; the new dimension he has adopted to launch his 2023 campaigns as well as cover up his many failings,” Ornguga said.
Responding, the governor through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, said the APC was at liberty not to attend the stakeholders’ meeting which holds regularly since the beginning of the present administration.
“The absence of the party from the Benue stakeholders’ meeting will neither affect the meeting nor stop the deliberations and implementation of resolutions that will be made at the forum.
“We just hope that APC’s emotion-laden statement to boycott the stakeholders’ meeting is not borne out of the recent defection of thousands of its members into the PDP in Benue State. If their reaction is a result of the mass decamping, it is unfortunate but understandable.”
“Governor Samuel Ortom has no problems with the decision of the party to stay away from government events. When the governor took the mantle of leadership, he promised to be the governor of every Benue person who will at all times make them part of policy formulation, decisions and programmes of government. He has kept that promise in the last six years.
“If APC in Benue State has great ideas to help the state to grow as it claims, the stakeholders’ meeting offers the party ample opportunity to present its “good ideas” for the benefit of the state.
“The sentiment they raised on the proposed privatization of government-owned enterprises is a jaundiced argument,” he said.
