Ortom commended Tambuwal for the visit and expressed optimism that the crisis would soon be resolved.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom on Sunday said arrogance and carefree attitude escalated the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ortom spoke while playing host to Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal who is also the Director-General of the campaign council for the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Tambuwal visited to see how the party could resolve the crisis.
Ortom, one of the G5 governors known as the Integrity Group, re-stated the group’s willingness to address the crisis if the party’s leadership shows readiness.
Ortom said, “This meeting is at his (Tambuwal) instance. We have discussed quite a number of issues including the division in the PDP; the G-5 which I am a member. He is here principally to see how we can team up and work together as a party.
“I have told him he is welcome, we are together, we are members of the PDP. But I have said that the leadership of this party has failed to take advantage of the challenges of the party and make it stronger.
“Right from when we held our convention, instead of the leadership deploying its internal dispute resolution mechanism to look at the grievances that arose as a result of the dispute that arose from the primary, no matter how stupid they were, they have failed to do this.
“Rather, it is arrogance, non-chalant attitude; and nobody has cared to reach out to us even when we voiced out that things were not going on well.
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Ortom commended Tambuwal for the visit and expressed optimism that the crisis would soon be resolved.
“And we have discussed my opinion on how I think this matter can be resolved. And I believe that as a leader and the DG of the campaign, he would do the needful because I am not alone. Talking to me alone will not solve the problem but reaching out to the others. I believe he will do the needful to pull the party together,” he said.
Tambuwal said that work was in progress towards resolving the crisis.
“Even in our families, we have reasons to disagree and agree, at some other times when you have such disagreement and you come back together, you bond stronger and wax stronger.
“So, it’s work in progress and we have met several times but we are working to bring everybody together to work for this party. That is the mission of my being here in Makurdi.
“He (Ortom) is a principled person on the issues we are handling and we have had a very strong conversation with him and of course, I will engage with the rest of our colleagues and our leaders to see how best we can come back together as one family and work towards making sure that the PDP come out stronger and win the elections in 2023,” said Tambuwal.