Ortom: PDP Internal Mechanism to Solve Party Crises Has Failed

•Blames leadership for situation in party

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and George Okoh in Makurdi

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has decried the internal mechanism set up by the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to address the injustices meted out to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike and other members of the party, stating that the mechanism has failed.

Ortom, who made this known yesterday at the Government House, Makurdi during an expanded caucus meeting of the party in the state, however, blamed the lingering crises in the party on the poor management of the presidential convention and the post-convention outcome.

The Benue governor, who noted that he had offered suggestion on how the party should  resolve their lingering crisis at the national level, warned that ignoring Wike or anyone at that would be dangerous for the party at the polls.

He said the leadership of the party has failed to deploy its internal mechanism and conflict management skills in handling the crisis.

“There is injustice that has been meted to my friend, Wike, because he stood for the party and supported it to the end. The leadership of the party should do the needful to resolve the problem and not to shove people around as though they are not relevant. Everyone is relevant and one vote can make you fail election.

“So, the leadership at the national level should do more. Politics is interest and what is the interest of our state and our people. What do I tell my people in Benue? If you dismiss us that you don’t need us, I believe that will be dangerous. I want the party to address the injustices so that as we move into election, we will work together and we will have no crisis.”

Laying more emphasis in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Nathaniel Ikyur, the governor maintained that as one of the party’s stakeholders, who believed in justice, equity and fairness, he had openly expressed his concerns and made frank suggestions on how the issues could be addressed.

He noted that his observations on how to resolve the issues were not considered and rather, the internal crisis was unfortunately left to fester.

He, therefore, urged the leadership of the party to do more and build confidence to resolve the internal crisis, emphasising that he remained firmly committed to the party’s electoral victory in next year’s polls.

Ortom said the main agenda of the PDP remained how to rescue the country from APC’s misrule, which he noted has plunged the nation into multiple socio-economic problems that must be tackled holistically to redeem the nation.

He said as the leader of the party in the state, he would not succumb to any form of blackmail, but rather continues to work assiduously for the party’s victory at the polls.