Ortom: I’d Have Worked for Obi If I Were Not in PDP

•Suspend campaigns, LP candidate tells Atiku, Tinubu, others

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, yesterday said he would have worked for the victory of the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, if he were not a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ortom spoke when he received Obi, who was in the state to commiserate with residents over flooding.

The Benue governor said the 2023 presidential election would be a three-horse race between Obi, Atiku Abubakar of PDP, and Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

He said Nigerians need to assess the three presidential candidates and elect the person “who has the capacity to deliver and make things work for our country Nigeria”.

“Let us be factual. Let us be frank with ourselves because we are toying with our future. A country of over 200 million people deserves a better leadership that is proactive, has foresight and vision to make things work for our country,” he said.

“I look forward that these three candidates of the various political parties will meet and say ‘look, let this man go’.

“I am in PDP and I am working for PDP. But I tell you, if I was not in PDP, you will see me working for Peter Obi. But I am in PDP. Let’s see how things work out.”

Ortom encouraged Nigerians to go into the 2023 general election with the mindset of electing the best presidential candidate among the top hopefuls.

According to him, Nigeria currently runs on oxygen and would need a hands-on and detribalised leader to restore hope, development and progress.

Ortom’s remarks come hours after Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers and PDP member, endorsed Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Lagos counterpart who is a member of the APC, for a second term in office.

Ortom and Wike are allies and they have been demanding the resignation of Iyorchia Ayu as national chairman of the PDP.

The crisis in the PDP has festered, while Ayu has maintained that he will complete his tenure.

Speaking with journalists, Obi called on his counterparts in other parties to suspend their campaigns and join him to help victims of floods across states of the federation.

Obi said he expected other presidential candidates to show concerns to the plight of victims of flooding, considering how millions were spent on nomination forms alone.

The former Anambra governor vowed to fix Nigeria’s challenges if he wins next year’s poll and becomes the country’s President.

Floods have hit parts of Nigeria in the last two months with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) saying that about 2.5 million persons were affected and over 603 persons killed by the flooding caused by torrential rainfall of late.

Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.