Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom says he is willing to give up his senatorial ambitions in the National Assembly elections this Saturday if it means ensuring the victory of Labour Party‘s presidential candidate Peter Obi.
Ortom, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, is running in the Benue North-West senatorial district.
His support for Obi came after months of refusing to support the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, whose emergence in May 2022 was seen as unfair by several high-ranking party members.
While speaking to members of the state’s Igbo community on Monday, Benue Governor Samuel Ortom reiterated his support for the former Anambra State governor.
“For me, it’s not even that I’m contesting an election. Yes, the form was bought for me by the people of Benue State. I’ve gone round; they have accepted that they will vote [for] me,” he said.
“But if I’m to sacrifice my senatorial ambition for Peter Obi to win, so shall it be,” he said to loud cheers from the crowd.
He added, “I know that if [any group of] people are connected in this world, they are the Igbo. This is the opportunity you have to say that an Igbo man from the South-East is president.”
Ortom identified with those who believed in Nigeria’s unity and collaboration, claiming that it is for this reason that he accommodates everyone.
“So, let us not miss this opportunity that God himself is providing. The youth have told me, my own people have told me – stakeholders here, traditional rulers, party people across party lines. Obi’s matter is not about APC or PDP or SDP or any other party. It’s about Nigeria.”
Ortom, while speaking to the crowd said that they have the population, adding that they should thank God for “what is unfolding”.
Obi, he said, is a species that is not bound by ethnicity.
“That is why when I hear some prominent Igbo personalities castigating Peter Obi for contesting the election – is it not you people that have been saying you have been marginalised since after the war?
“The opportunity has come today and you’re still complaining. What do you want?! What are you looking for?
“The whole country – North, South, East, and West – are saying Peter Obi, and you hear some people say, ‘We don’t want it.’ Haba! Those people should be outcasts.”
