APC Reacts As Ortom ‘Dumps’ Party

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to the reported exit of one of its governors from the ruling party on Monday.

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had during the inauguration of Jerome Torshimbe as the Special Adviser to the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, declared that he was no longer a member of the APC as he had been “given red card” by the party.

Ortom said, “I have been given red card and I’m outside the pitch. So, if I have been given red card and I’m standing outside I’m a free man,” adding that “I don’t know what will happen next, but I’m waiting. If one approaches me, then I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club.”

Reacting however to the governor’s submission, the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said the party was yet to receive the governor’s letter of resignation from its fold.

Oshiomhole also denied that the ruling party “pushed” Mr Ortom out of the party as the governor claimed.

“Gov. Ortom had told me severally that he will not leave the APC unless he was pushed out and I know that we have not pushed him out,” said the APC Chairman during a National Working Committee meeting of the party in Abuja.

Meanwhile, Governor Ortom’s supposed exit from the APC may not be unconnected to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration failure to end the widespread killings in Benue and other North Central States by suspected Fulani herdsmen.