The Deputy National Chairman (North), Sen. Lawal Shu’aibu has summoned Governor Samuel Ortom and Senator George Akume, the two main actors in the tussle for leadership of the Benue chapter of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ), for a meeting in Abuja.

The meeting was called following an announcement by the governor that he was pulling out of the party.

Both Ortom and Akume, also a former governor of the state, have been at daggers-drawn over the control of the party.

Gov. Ortom had on Monday in Makurdi shortly after swearing in a new Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Jerome Shimbe, renounced his membership of APC.

According to the governor, he has ceased to be a member of the APC, following what he called “a red card” given to him.

He said the red card from APC would enable him to join any political party that has an ideology worthy of being adopted by his administration.

The governor stated that the strained relationship between him and the party, under which he contested the 2015 governorship election in 2015, had left him without a party.

However, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, had on Monday in Abuja, described the alleged exit of the governor from the party as a rumour.

(NAN)