PDP Crisis: All Is Not Well With Our Party – Ortom

Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has said all is not well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as he bemoaned the effects of the ongoing rift between Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, and the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar.

This was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by his media aide, Nathaniel Ikyu.

He said the crisis has torn the party apart but expressed the hope that it will be resolved in time for the party to form a united front in its campaign to win the 2023 presidential election.

The PDP crisis started after conclusion of the selection of Ifeanyi Okowa, the Delta State governor as the Vice Presidential running mate to Atiku Abubakar.

While Wike was the popular choice based on the selection committee of the party, Atiku opted for Okowa. Wike expressed his anger towards that and the manner in which Atiku handled the development.

The Rivers State governor subsequently demanded that the National Chairman of the party, Iyorchia Ayu, leave for the sake of equity and justice since the party’s presidential candidate is from the North like Ayu.

Wike confirmed that a day after the conclusion of the party’s presidential primary, Atiku had visited him, promising that Ayu would go to balance the headship of key party positions in the party.

It soon degenerated into a war of words with Ayu calling Wike and his camp children, which further deepened the rift in the party.

All entreaties have failed to arrest the situation but Ortom believes the right approach to resolve the conflict from the party leadership must be evolved before it becomes too late.

He pointed out that, “There are certain internal mechanisms that should apply to conflict resolution within the party.

“Some of these instruments should have been deployed long ago.”

The governor however said, “Discussions are ongoing at different levels away from the public eye, to ensure unity and oneness of purpose in the PDP, with eyes on 2023.

“I am very interested in ensuring that we discuss. I want us to have a win-win situation so that people will feel they have been carried along.”

He expressed the hope that, regardless of its present challenges, the PDP will reinvent itself in good time to defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 election.

He said, “I will not say that all is well with our party. The good thing is that we recognise the issues and we have generated dialogue in various ways.

“Engagement is what I have always encouraged. Everybody cannot be winning all the time.”

The governor stressed the need for unity within the opposition so as to defeat the APC in 2023, describing APC performance as “dismal and abysmal.”.

He lauded the PDP for enjoying absolute majority in the Benue House of Assembly, which he said is a sign of APC failure and rejection.
He pointed out that the frosty relationship between him and President Muhammadu Buhari is due to the president and his handlers’ rejection of his suggestions on solving insecurity crisis in the country.

He accused the president of starving Benue State of fund, saying, “We applied for a bailout of N42 billion from the Federal Government to enable us to offset longstanding arrears of salaries, pensions and gratuities.

“Some of these people scrambled to the State House to tell the President not to release the funds even after approval so that we will not take the credit for solving the age-long problem.

“This is the kind of mean-spirited attitude APC is inflicting on our people.”

He accused “the same people, who have ensured my inaccessibility to the President. I said it before. It is now almost two years since I last saw the President. If I had access to him, I will prefer a one-on-one exchange with him.

“Since that is not possible, I go to the press. I must talk, I must express myself. I am holding this office in trust for several million people of Benue State. I am not here of my own volition.”