2027: Ortom debunks plot to replace Aondoakaa as Benue PDP guber candidate

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Former Benue state governor and leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state, Chief Samuel Ortom, has dismissed as false and misleading reports alleging that he and other party leaders are plotting to replace the party’s 2027 governorship candidate, Chief Michael Aondoakaa, SAN, with the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Dr. Pius Akutah.

Ortom, in a statement issued by his Media Assistant, Zege Terhide, said the report circulating on social media was a “mischievous” distortion of a recent meeting involving prominent Benue stakeholders.

The former governor explained that he, alongside the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro, and the PDP governorship candidate, Aondoakaa, met with prominent Benue sons, including Chief Simon Shango, Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, Dr. Pius Akutah, Emmanuel Ameh and Dr. Matthias Byuan.

According to him, the meeting was part of ongoing consultations aimed at building a broad strategic alliance among Benue stakeholders for the overall interest of the state.

“At no time during the meeting was the replacement of Chief Aondoakaa as the PDP governorship candidate discussed, contemplated or placed on the agenda,” Ortom said.

He described attempts to give the meeting a different interpretation as mischievous, stressing that political consultations across party lines were normal in a democratic environment. “It is therefore mischievous for anyone to take a legitimate meeting of Benue leaders and manufacture an entirely different motive for it,” he said.

Ortom maintained that consultations and engagements involving political actors and stakeholders should not automatically be interpreted as secret conspiracies, particularly when such engagements are motivated by the larger interest of…