Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, has challenged the Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole to prove his claims of mismanagement of Benue bailout and Paris Club refunds.

Ortom accused Oshiomhole of making “astonishing, unsubstantiated, wild and wide allegations relating to the issue of allocation and payment of salaries, security votes expenditure and the insecurity in Benue State.

The governor, who spoke in an August 6 letter written by his counsel, Samuel Irabor, alleged that the ex-Edo Governor Oshiomhole made libellous statements against him at a press conference on July 27.

He demanded that Oshiomhole should write a “letter of retraction/apology addressed to our client in respect of the false, defamatory and libelous statement made against him in the sponsored press conference herein complained of.

According to the Benue governor, Oshiomhole’s statements were an attempt to “regain political mileage” following Ortom’s recent exit from the APC to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

He claimed that since he exercised his “political freedom” by moving to a party that guaranteed safety for his kinsmen, Oshiomhole had embarked on a campaign of hatred and propaganda against him.

Ortom described as false and offensive, “your allegations that our client has confessed to sharing Benue State money with party leaders and that despite collection of bail out and Paris Club refund monies.”

•Excerpted from The Nation report