Ortom’s aide: Oshiomhole in a hurry to bury APC

Terver Akase, chief press secretary of Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue, says Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), appears to be in a hurry to perform the funeral of the ruling party.

Akase said this in response to the critical comments Oshiomhole made about his principal on Friday.

While commenting on  Ortom’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oshiomhole said the governor had deepened the circle of poverty in his state.

Oshiomhole alleged that the governor fell out with the leadership of the party in his state because his close allies were  involved in the killings in Benue.

Reacting to the comments of the APC national chairman, Akase said Oshiomhole’s attack showed that there is a plot to throw the state into crisis ahead of the 2019 election.

“We were however shocked when, a few days later after Ortom’s defection from APC, we read comrade Oshiomhole making a 180 degrees turn to launch verbal attacks on the governor,” the statement read.

“The APC national chairman’s sudden aggression towards governor Ortom has revealed among other things, the true oppressive intentions of the ruling party APC against Nigerians. Oshiomhole appears to be flying a kite of an agenda to intimidate and suppress Nigerians who desire freedom from a party which has clearly failed to secure lives and property, thereby ushering in an orgy of violence never before witnessed in the history of the country.

“Adams Oshiomhole’s diatribe against governor Ortom has also revealed the plot hatched by APC leaders within and outside Benue to throw the state into political crisis ahead of the 2019 elections.

“Comrade Oshiomhole ought to be telling Nigerians why they should vote for APC next year instead of embarking on a voyage of attacks on perceived opponents. His unprovoked attack on Governor Ortom and other members of the opposition has not translated to a single vote for the APC.

“A man of supposed high political stature like Oshiomhole should rather be out to court the sympathy of the very few key actors still left in the APC even in the face of unprecedented frustration by anomalies in the party instead of launching laughable verbal assaults on those who can no longer stand the strange happenings within the party.

“Insulting almost all those who have left due to the party’s inability to address their grievances would only convince those yet to make up their minds that they are truly in the wrong place. Oshiomhole appears to be in a hurry to justify his moniker as an undertaker who has come to evacuate what is left of the once popular APC into oblivion as recently observed by the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.”

He advised the chairman to get busy with the job of his office rather than engaging in “divisive and hate-filled statements”.

“As a former governor, Oshiomhole ought to be statesmanly in his utterances. As the chairman of the ruling party, he ought to speak with decorum and caution, to market his party and its candidates to Nigerians and not try to whip political opponents into silence,” he said.

“On his allegation that the governor’s aides are among those killing people in the state, it seems Oshiomhole is privy to the ongoing investigation of the suspects arrested in connection with the murder of two Catholic priests and 17 worshipers at Mbalom, Gwer east local government area of Benue state.

“With his jumping into conclusion that the suspects were sponsored by the governor, our suspicion is that either the investigation into the matter has been compromised or the APC national chairman is influencing it. Benue people know who their killers are, and the attackers are believed to be sponsored by Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other Miyetti Allah groups.

“We advise the APC national chairman to stop his shameful dance on the graves of innocent Benue children, pregnant women and others slaughtered by armed herdsmen. Governor Ortom won’t let APC’s latter day media attacks distract his administration from providing good governace to the people as he has been doing.”