Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, Tuesday dismissed as untrue the reports making the rounds that he has abandoned the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike amid the struggle to retool the National Executive structure of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Sunrise.ng recalls Wike’s strategic team demanded the removal of the PDP National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu as a pre-condition for unity and a sense of belonging to jointly prosecute the party’s presidential electioneering campaigns for the 2023 general elections.
Ortom added that he never abandoned Wike and still standing with him to reposition the PDP and seeking remedies over alleged injustices meted to him during and after the PDP presidential primaries.
The governor’s reaction followed the report credited to news outlets captioned, “Ortom Breaks With Wike, Says He Is Not Supporting Ayu’s Removal.”
Ortom made this clarification while fielding questions from newsmen on his return from London.
In his words, “There is no breaking away from our group. I still sympathize with Wike for the injustices meted out on him and our group.
“The Thisday news report is misleading. I just came back from London this morning with Wike and I still maintain my stand on what I said. I have not moved away from there. The party leadership has not been fair to Governor Wike based on the activities that took place during the convention and after the convention.
“They have not been able to adequately deploy the internal conflict resolution mechanism of the party to resolve those issues. So I still sympathize and stand with Wike and let the leadership of the party at the national level do the right thing. It is not too late to do so.
“Politics is about interest, and where your interest is not protected, you have the right to protest” stressing that “We remain committed to the PDP but still want the right thing to be done so that everybody will be carried along.”