Benue People Regret Having Samuel Ortom As Their Governor

Benue State people have regretted having Samuel Ortom as their governor.

“It is disheartening that Governor Ortom has neither been able to initiate any development project nor pay basic salaries, and pensions and gratuities of retirees.”

In a statement today, November 30 in Abuja, Tiv Youth Council Worldwide (TYCW), a Benue-based socio-cultural group, said that the governor has consistently ignored counsel to partner with relevant Federal Government agencies to attract development to the state but continue to dish out verbal insults to perceived enemies.

In the statement, the president of the group, Mike Msuaan said: “we have appealed to Governor Ortom several times to please concentrate on governance and entrench good governance and responsible leadership in the state.

“We have wondered why development has continued to elude us under his leadership, especially at a time states, created several years after Benue, have moved with the speed of light.

“We have consistently tasked Governor Ortom to develop the state and to create an enabling environment for the people of Benue to excel.”

The group alleged that governor Ortom has not conducted any employment exercise since he came to office in 2015.

“In 2019, he promised to employ 5,000 teachers; lately, he reduced the number to 2,000, but this has remained in the realm of wishful thinking.

“The governor has refused to pay workers and pensioners in the state for several months,’’ the TYCW added.

It said that since he was elected governor, Ortom had not built any industry to meaningfully employ the people of Benue.

“We have continuously appealed to him, to liaise with relevant Federal Government institutions to rebuild, resettle and return Internally Displaced People to their ancestral homes.

“This appeal fell on deaf ears. We have consistently reminded him that even in Borno which is almost a war zone, GovernorbZulum has been resettling his people.

“Today, we are sad that the governor has moved from lack of development to verbally dishing out insults.

“We have listened to an audio recording in some national dailies and online media that while inaugurating a church building recently, the governor said his people drank from 9 a.m.

“He said in the audio recording that Tiv people used to go to bed from beer parlours only to wake and insult him (the governor).

“So far, there has been no rebuttal from the government.

“The response from the Chief Press Secretary, Mr Nathaniel Kyur, was a face-saving and damage control blunder in which he accepted that Gov. Ortom made the comment but it was targeted at APC members.

“We join well-meaning Nigerians to strongly condemn such use of derogatory words on the good people of Benue and demand an immediate and unreserved apology from the governor.”

The group said that such demeaning reference to a people should be condemned by all well-meaning people and called on the Benue Traditional Council and religion institutions to call the governor to order.