2019: Ortom, Gemade, others set to dump APC, eyes SDP ||…Defection not on table for now – CPS

THE promulgation of the Prohibition of Open Grazing and Establishment of Ranches Law 2017 by Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State to protect the people from killer herdsmen may deny him the All Progressives Congress, APC gubernatorial ticket in the 2019 general elections.

There are indications that some high profile members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Benue State led by Governor Samuel Ortom and Senator Barnabas Gemade are concluding plans to defect to the Social Democratic Party, SDP.

Reliable sources which confided in Nigerian Pilot in Makurdi at the weekend said both the party leadership at the national level and the presidency are uncomfortable with the posture of the governor who has maintained to defend the Benue law in spite of options put on the table by the federal government to resolve the persistent attack by herders on peasant Benue farmers.

“This is the truth of the matter, the forces see Ortom as a hard nut to crack based on his stand on the anti-open grazing law.

“The law is the people’s law, is it a bad thing for an elected governor to stand up for his people?

“We have been advising him (Ortom) to seek alternative platform for his second term aspiration. With what was is happening the coast is getting clearer than before.”

It was gathered that some influential leaders of the APC have vowed to deny Governor Ortom the party’s ticket for second term unless he repeals the anti-grazing law.

This plot is said to have been leaked to the Benue governor and APC leaders in the state, a development that left them with no option but to search for alternative platform to contest election in 2019.

Our sources added that the angry Benue APC leaders did not consider using the platform of PDP even as the main opposition is said to be mounting pressure on them to return to the fold from where most of them defected to the APC saying “our people don’t like going back to their vomit.”

Apart from the plot to deny Governor Ortom ticket in 2016, the people of Benue state are said to be very “disgusted” with the ruling APC over the unwarranted killings going on in the state without the federal government doing enough to stop the killings.

The people are said to have made up their mind to teach APC political lesson with the Permanent Voters’ Card, PVC, during the forthcoming elections in 2019.

Nigerian Pilot also gathered that among the political leaders in Benue State it is only former governor George Akume, now a Senator, that is insisting on staying put in APC.

Benue leaders are said to be shopping for Akume’s replacement if he declines to dump APC before the primaries of the political parties.

While Benue leaders are shopping for Akume’s replacement, the APC is said to be looking in the direction of the Managing Director of the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA, Barrister Emmannuel Jime to fly the party’s governorship flag next year.

However, Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Terver Akase told our correspondent on phone yesterday that it is true that there are issues in the party but that it has not come to the point of the governor defecting from the party.

“There are issues, like in every political party there are bound to be issues but the issues are being sorted out.

“It has not come to the point of defection that is not the issue on the table for now, the governor has not told us that.

“Like I said it has nothing to do with defection. The issues will be sorted out amicably,” he said.

Source Nigerian Pilot.