PDP leadership is failing to take advantage of challenges to make party stronger – Gov Ortom tells Tambuwal

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has reaffirmed his position that the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is failing to take advantage of the challenges within the party to make it stronger.

Governor Ortom stated this Sunday, December 11th, 2022 while briefing journalists after a closed-door meeting at the Benue Peoples House, Makurdi with his Sokoto State counterpart, Governor Aminu Tambuwal who visited him at the weekend over the lingering crises in the party.

According to Governor Ortom, the meeting, which was held at the instance of Governor Tambuwal discussed a variety of issues bordering on the internal wranglings rocking the party.

In his words, “Governor Tambuwal is the Chairman of PDP Governors Forum and currently the acting Chairman of Nigerian Governors Forum and the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization. This meeting is at his instance.

“We have discussed quite a number of issues including the division in the PDP and the G-5, which I am a member. He is principally here to see how we can team up and work together as a party.

“I have told him we are members of the PDP and like I have always said, the leadership of this party have failed to take advantage of the challenges of the party and make the party stronger right from when we held our national convention,” Ortom stated.

He went on, “Instead of the party deploying its internal conflict resolution mechanism to look at the grievances that arose as a result of the primaries, no matter how stupid they were, they have failed to do this. Rather it is arrogance and a nonchalant attitude. Nobody has cared to reach out to us even when we voiced out that things were not going on well.

“For me, I commend him (Tambuwal) for taking this step to visit me and we have discussed my opinion on how I think this matter can be resolved and I believe that as a leader and as DG of the campaign, he will do the needful because I am not alone. Talking to me alone will not solve the problem, but reaching out to others will be more meaningful. I also believe he will also try to do the needful to put the party together as it is,” he added.

On his part, Governor Tambuwal who is the Director General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council disclosed that he had a fruitful conversation with Governor Ortom whom he noted is one of the leaders of the PDP who holds an important position in the affairs of the party.

In his words: “We have had time to converse and engage on what is happening in our party. He is the leader as of right in this party. And when you look at his trajectory, his political history and where he is today, he holds a very important position in the affairs of our party.

“I have said this before that internal party wranglings are normal and what we have been having is not a war of attrition but political disagreement. Even in our families, we disagree and when you have such disagreements and come back, you even bond more stronger and work stronger.

“So it is a work in progress. We have said it several times that we are interested in bringing everybody together, to work together for this party and that is the mission of my being here in Makurdi.”

Tambuwal further stated that “He (Ortom) is one the principal persons on the issues that we are handling and I have a very useful conversation with him which I will of course engage with the rest of our colleagues and other leaders and see how best we can come back together as one family and work towards making sure that the PDP come out stronger and win the elections of 2023 convincingly.”

Former Benue State Governor and Senator representing Benue North-East, Dr Gabriel Suswam accompanied Governor Tambuwal on the visit to Governor Ortom.