Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has faulted claims and insinuations that he supports the removal of National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Iyorchia Ayu.
Ortoms shocking revelation is however in contrast with his earlier position for the demands made by his close friend and Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike that Ayu be removed as the chairman of the party.
Ortom is part of the Wike camp that has demanded for the removal of Ayu, a Northerner after Atiku Abubakar who is also a northerner emerged the party’s presidential candidate.
Wike and his group had repeatedly insisted that Ayu cannot remain in office since the party’s presidential flagbearer is of Northern extraction.
However, in a statement released by his media aide, Nathaniel Ikyur, the governor distanced himself from the calls for Ayu’s removal while reacting to accusations by a group, Jemgbagh Development Association, that he was involved in the ouster moves against the PDP national chairman, a fellow Benue man.
The governor said it was an open secret that he worked tirelessly, alongside other prominent Benue citizens, to ensure that Ayu was elected “as the national chairman of our great party even against all odds.”
To this extent, the statement said, “The governor could not, therefore, turn around to work against him to be removed from office.”
He described as mischievous the allegations by ”an amorphous, little known group parading itself as Jemgbagh Development Association, Abuja chapter” that he has a hand in Ayu’s current travails”.
