BENUE ASSEMBLY PDP CAUCUS EXTOLS ORTOM’S LEADERSHIP QUALITIES

MAKURDI: Monday 14th July, 2014.

Members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, caucus in the Benue State House of Assembly have extolled the leadership qualities of Chief Dr Samuel Ortom describing him as the best person to be governor of the state in 2015.

The members spoke when the Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment consulted with them and declared his aspiration to be governor on PDP platform next year.

Ortom, his DG, Abancha, and caucus members

Those who spoke included Dr Stephen Onmeje, Deputy Speaker, who represented the Speaker, Hon. Terhile Ayua, Hon. Paul Biam, Majority Leader, Hons. Ianna Jato, David Iorhemba, and James Ochojila.

Ortom addresses the caucus

According to the members, Chief Dr Ortom who is also Supervising Aviation Minister was a God fearing, humble, peaceful and focused as well as a development-oriented person who carried people along.

They said he was also a popular and astute grassroots politician who rose to his present position from humble beginnings which have made him acquainted with the peoples’ problems and aspirations.

The caucus members stated that the people of the state would be happy to have him as their governor because he was a detribalized and experienced politician who had served at the local, state and national levels.

They commended Chief Dr Ortom for his broadmindedness in putting together what they said was an all encompassing entourage comprising a large number of former national and state assembly members across the state which they described as intimidating.

The legislators said the aspirant’s team was the most environment-friendly by not defacing the town with posters and that he had also raised the bar of the contest with his integrity.

They expressed delight with his appeal to the electorate to retain legislators who perform so that the society could benefit from their wealth of experience instead of the current high turnover of members of the legislature.

Chief Dr Ortom who commended members for their cordial relationship with the executive particularly Governor Gabriel Suswam, attributed successes recorded by his administration to the cooperation between the two arms and solicited support towards the realization of his aspiration.

Biam, majority leader

He pledged that if given the mandate he would bring the fear of God to bear on governance such that there would be wisdom for statecraft, transparency, accountability, justice, selflessness, forgiveness and reconciliation which he said shall usher in peace, unity and development.

He stated while his administration would consolidate on gains made by Governor Suswam in all sectors his priorities would include industrialization and attraction of investment into the state.

He said the initiatives would create wealth and opportunities and minimize unemployment and poverty as well as add value on agricultural produce through processing.

Former Assembly members who gave testimony about Chief Dr Ortom’ s capabilities included Messrs Jerome Hwande, Mrs Christy Adokwu, Moses Odu, and Hyacinth Nyakuma.

They described him as a credible pace setter who is humane, straight forward, and reliable adding that from his antecedents he would revive the state’s ailing industries and also create new ones.