Today, the APC and Ortom are faced with the
naked and ugly reality of going before the
people and telling them the truth that they lied
to them, that they were dishonest and cheated
their way to power.
The war of words between the former Governor
of Benue state, Gabriel Suswam and Governor
Samuel Ortom might not be ending anytime soon.
Leadership Newspapers reports that Suswam, on
his social media page, dissed Governor Ortom,
and said Benue state did well, during his tenure
as Governor.
An excerpt of the statement, obtained from
Leadership Newspapers, reads “When I
assumed office as the fourth Executive
Governor of the state, I had a deep
passion burning in me which largely derived
from the quality of exposure and
orientation I had acquired from eight
years of robust political leadership
participation at the National Assembly as a
frontline member of the House of
Representatives. There I came face to
face with the realities of leadership as
being a matter of uncompromising
determination fuelled by deeply-insighted
vision. I had also acquired a rich store of
social collateral attended by a sufficient
degree of gravitas such as armed me to
the hilt for the office of governor.
“About salary arrears, during the
campaigns, I told the people that on
assumption of office, I had, without
prompting from any quarters whatsoever,
increased the wages of workers in the
state when I discovered those wages were
pathetically low. I had consistently paid
the workers their wages for almost eight
years without fail, until the slump in
national earnings from crude sells forced
on my administration an inability to pay
salaries as consistently as I had done, and
this was not a situation exclusive to Benue
State alone, but it was same for 28 other
states.”
He also said “Unfortunately, the APC and
Ortom, in their desperation for votes,
chose instead to manipulate the people by
telling them lies that I didn’t pay salaries
just because I had corner the monies for
my own use, and that I was the only
governor owing workers salaries in the
country. Today, the reality has dawned on
everyone. I did not owe workers salaries
out of choice, but because I just couldn’t
do otherwise with the dwindling accruals
from the federal allocations and this was a
nationwide problem.
“Today, the APC and Ortom are faced with
the naked and ugly reality of going before
the people and telling them the truth that
they lied to them, that they were
dishonest and cheated their way to power.
Instead of doing this, they have chosen
again to be manipulative by seeking to
mislead the people to accept that the
situation on ground can be given the name
associated to me. And I ask, will there be
no end to the manipulations and deceit of
the APC and Ortom in this state? Can they
not for once be honest to the people?”
