Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state, said he doesn’t feel defeated despite losing his senatorial bid in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
He said this at the commissioning of Government Secondary School, Kpor in Gokana Local Government Area (LGA) in a statement Tuesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Nathaniel Ikyur.
The governor said he remains undeterred in his advocacy for equity, justice and fairness.
Recall that Ortom is a member of the G5, a group of five aggrieved Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors including Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), who refused to campaign for their party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Ortom backed the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, but some other members of the G5 supported Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the the All Progressives Congress (APC), who won the election.
However, both Ortom and Obi lost the their senatorial and presidential bids respectively.
Ortom was quoted to have said, “I am not defeated and I stand tall and I am proud of associating with Governor Nyesome Wike and many others who have chosen to stand by the truth and to ensure equity, fairness, and justice for this country.
“We have everything we need in Nigeria, what is lacking is equity, fairness, and justice and I am very proud that right from the beginning, I stood firm and said after eight years of Presidency in the North, another eight years should go to the South and I am happy that today this is where we are.”
The governor also commended the people of Rivers State for standing with Wike and supporting him in all his aspirations, describing him as “a great Nigerian, a patriot, a man that believes in equity, fairness, and justice.”
One of the main demands of the G5 was that the resignation of the former National Chairman of the PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, to honour the party’s constitutional provisions on zoning.
Ayu, however, stepped aside last week, after a months-long feud between the G5 and the national leadership of the PDP
