New Telegraph

Ortom: I won’t defect to APC

…says he’s under pressure to repeal grazing law

As some Nigerian governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continue to defect to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, yesterday, said he won’t decamp, but remain in the PDP. Governor Ortom said he has no reason to dump the PDP whose governors are commissioning projects in their states, insisting that the APC under President Mohammadu Buhahi’s watch has failed to live up to expectation by securing the lives of Nigerians and improving the economy.

Ortom, who spoke to newsmen in Makurdi, the state capital, said PDP governors defecting to the APC are free to do so since it was in a democracy. “I have refused to join APC, I will remain in PDP and I will remain with my people and continue to work with them and ensure that the mistakes that PDP did in the past are corrected so that together we can move this country forward. “Today, APC has failed this nation, all that they are doing is to intimidate people, coarse people and try to blackmail people to make it look as if they are saints.

“Politics is a game of interest. So, PDP governors defecting to the APC are free as it is a democracy. In democracy, there is freedom, so I don’t know what the reason is, but for whatever they felt that is necessary, but for me, I remain committed because the APC has failed. They have nothing to offer and there is no reason I should go and join them.” Governor Ortom said he is under pressure by the APC-led government to amend the Anti-open Grazing Law, but said the pressure won’t work as the matter is beyond him. “I have been under pressure to make an amendment of the Anti-open Grazing Law and I said no, this law belongs to the Benue people.

We are against open grazing 100 percent whether I die or not, I still remain committed to the prohibition of open grazing in Benue State. That’s what the people want and the only people who can reverse this are Benue people, not even me.”

He called on President Buhari to rescind his decision to insist that open grazing must continue in the country. “I will continue to call on the President to rescind his decision to insist that open grazing must continue in Nigeria. Open grazing is outdated, there is no need for it and we must ranch our cattle, whether you are a Fulani man, Hausa man, Ibo or Yoruba man. If you want to do ranching, we have land for you, come and apply, we will give you that land on lease that is what our law says.” Governor Ortom accused President Buhari of being responsible for the problems facing the nation “because the open grazing that he is insisting on will only bring crisis, chaos and lawlessness” in the country.

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