2023: Ortom hints at withdrawing support for Atiku, slams ex-VP over incendiary statement

The governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, said on Tuesday that the state might not support the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Abubakar Atiku in the 2023 election.

The governor also claimed in a press conference in Makurdi that he had no say in who was chosen to represent the state on the presidential campaign team.

He said, “I am not in his campaign team. All the people there are not with my consent. But I am waiting, when the election comes, we shall hold the election according to the election.”

The governor also reacted to Atiku’s outburst at a recent interactive session hosted by Arewa Consultative Forum in Kaduna.

He said that Atiku was upset with him for labeling Fulani people as terrorists and bandits and that the comment proved the PDP presidential candidate was collaborating with Miyetti Allah.

“That is the same thing Miyetti Allah was saying about me. I never profiled Fulani. I only qualify each time I called Fulanis.

READ ALSO:2023: ‘I would support you if not in PDP,’ Ortom subtly places Obi over Atiku, Tinubu, others

“These are Fulanis from Niger Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, Libya from Chad who have come together and said they would take over our country and make their abode.

“It was not correct for a presidential candidate who is seeking to rule the people to say that kind of thing.

“It was very wrong. And it would appear that he doesn’t even reference me and consider me to be a Governor of my state.”

Several PDP governors, including Ortom, have chosen not to actively back Atiku’s campaign for the presidency in 2023.

Others are Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers.

The group of governors, who are reportedly led by Mr. Wike, have demanded that the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, be replaced with a Southerner.

They asserted that Ayu, a northerner, pledged to quit if a northerner won the PDP nomination.

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