Former Governor of Benue State and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Samuel Ortom, has rubbished the chances of success for the coalition-backed African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Ortom recently revealed that he has no plans to join any coalition outside of the PDP.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the ex-governor expressed strong doubts about the coalition’s ability to gain traction or survive internal and external political pressures.
According to him, while every politician is free to join any political party of his or her choosing, he and the people he leads will not be quitting the PDP anytime soon.
He stated that as a leader of PDP in Benue State and a member of the BoT, his loyalty to the party is always guaranteed.
“People are free to join any coalition that they so wish, but for me, and the people that I lead, we remain in PDP. I’m the leader of PDP in Benue State and a member of the BoT (Board of Trustees). I am not joining any coalition. We have no business with that.
I don’t see it surviving. In any case, even if they survive, if they are through with the litigation that is going on, they will be defeated hands down,” he said.
Addressing criticisms over his role in the PDP crisis leading up to the 2023 elections, especially his open opposition to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Ortom insisted he has no regrets supporting the candidate of the ruling party against his party’s candidate.
He concluded by saying that Atiku Abubakar taking over from a fellow northerner, Muhammadu Buhari, who ruled the country for eight years, would’ve been unheard of.
“How can you explain to me that a northerner won the presidency for eight years and another northerner, from the same ethnic group, will win the presidency for another four or eight years, as the case may be.
Our democracy has not gotten to that level. We said no; it is in the unwritten constitution that the North will do eight years and the South will do eight years. So, we believed in a southern presidency and not a northern presidency. That was why some of us supported a southern presidential aspirant,” he added.
