A political group under the aegis of Benue PDP Foundation Group, has called on the state working committee of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), to suspend the immediate past Governor of Benue state, Chief Samuel Ortom from the party.

Speaking during a press conference in Makurdi on Thursday, Coordinator of the group, Michael Aberagi, who accused the ex Governor of anti party activities, urged that a disciplinary committee be set up to handle his matter.

According to the group, responsible for the abysmal performance of the PDP in the 2023 general elections.

The recalled that after the national convention of the PDP which produced a presidential candidate of the party for the 2023 elections, Chief Ortom “joined forces with others to work against the candidate of the party and went ahead to adopt the candidature of Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and directed many of his followers to vote for him.

“Recently, H.E. Samuel Ortom at an event in Rivers state openly declared support for President Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 presidential second term.

“We view these anti party activities of H.E. Samuel Ortom as the proverbial acts of the man who after eating, breaks the dishes used to serve the food so that no other person benefits from them.”

While calling for Ortom’s suspension, the group warned that if the state working committee fails to respond in two weeks, the national working committee or any relevant body of the party at the national level should dissolve the Benue state EXCO of the party with immediate effect.

They said “failure of these organs of the party at both the state and national levels to do the needful as requested above, the entire membership of the party in the state shall be mobilized to save the party.

But in a swift response, the state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chief Bemgba Iortyom, described the group as faceless and one that should not be reckoned with.

He said the group Is does not exist just as those claiming its membership care not PDP members urging the public to disregard their action.

Mr Iortyom said ” In response to the purported call by a certain group that the party should suspend the immediate past governor of the state who is also the leader of the party in the state, Chief Samuel Ortom, ordinarily, we wouldn’t dignify such an outing with a response but for the fact the person being mentioned happens to be our leader, we make bold to say that the group does not exist within the knowledge of the PDP in the state. We do not know them.

“We are not aware of the existence of such a group. We have a number of groups that have aligned with the party and we know their members and leadership and we cooperate in areas of interest. This one does not exist to our knowledge.

We call on the general public to disregard the action of the group. If it were a genuine group, they would have followed a proper channel or laid down procedures but such has not been done. There is a due process but there has not been any complaints here at the Secretariat.

“We also serve a not of caution to whoever is behind the the pseudo group to come before the party to lay their grievances if such person or persons have any. Come before the party and lay your complaints and the party will look into them,” he said.

The PDP Publicity Secretary acknowledged that the party had misfortunes at the 2023 general elections but explained that “immediately after the elections, the leaders of the party have met and identified areas of shortcomings at the last elections, where they need to make amends and the process of reformation, restructuring has been consistent.”

He Insisted that the party is united under the leadership of Chief Samuel Ortom who remains the leader of the party till date and who has been bearing the burden of running the affairs of the party throughout the lengthy and costly litigation process that just culminated at the Supreme court last Monday.

“The man has been carrying on diligently with his duty as the leader of the party and he is responsible for maintaining and sustaining the administration has the party in Benue state. The party secretariat is run by his sacrificial efforts that His Excellency has been putting up here on monthly basis and we feel that any group coming up now with such an action is certainly not within the arm bit of the PDP and we caution them to desist from such acts,” he said. (Daily Sun)