There was honor for a prophet in his home today as Chief Dr Samuel Ortom, got an award for humanitarian services from the St Athanasius Catholic Church, Gbajimba, in Guma local government area of Benue State.
After the church service the Nzorov community where the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Benue State hails also hosted him and pledged to ensure that he gets hundred percent of their votes in the forthcoming polls.
Parish Priest, Rev Fr Samuel Lamen Bitto, listed the treatment of snake bite victims, setting up of the Goshen Water factory and several others which have employed hundreds of youths, as well as his contributions to the construction of the boarding school of the parish in Gbajimba as justification for the award.
“Good tobacco can only be known in the pipe,” Rev Fr Bitto quoted a Tiv proverb stressing that Chief Dr Ortom has been tried and tested and the result is that he is good.
Two church groups dressed Chief Dr Ortom in Tiv traditional attire while Rev Fr Bitto also gave him and Bible and some verses.
The former Minister of State, Industry, Trade, and Investment, stated that the story of his life was testimony that God still performed miracles similar to those mentioned in the Bible.
He said God lifted him and his wife from humble beginnings to their present status and appealed to those with personal challenges to also trust and submit to Him for help.
Chief Dr Ortom stated that just like David killed a lion which had attacked his father’s sheep he pursued and arrested robbers who were armed with seven AK 47, two pistols and over 600 rounds of ammunition and recovered his car and driver who they took away.
He awarded scholarships for the training of two Catholic priests from the Nzorov community.
Both in church and at the reception which took place at the LGEA Primary School, Gbajimba, he pledged to justify the confidence reposed in him by his community since he started politics in 1991.
Chief Dr Ortom stated that he was confident of winning the election because Benue people had told him in his interactions with them across the state that they supported him on account of his God fearing nature, experience in politics and public service from the local through the state, national, and international levels as well as his private sector background and antecedents.
He promised to implement the free and compulsory primary and secondary education policy of the APC, construct the major road linking Makurdi and Gbajimba, implement programs that will reduce poverty, ignorance and disease to the barest minimum even as he would find a permanent solution to the herdsmen’s perennial clash with farmers in Benue State.
Community leaders who spoke at the reception for various groups including the APC, youths, women, elders and the elite, Ukuleme Adekpe, Ama Mza, Gbamwuan Iortswam, Mercy Ikyomon, and Vanger Iyorhom, pledged the support of the people towards the realization of Chief Dr Ortom’s governorship aspiration.
The Director General of the Ortom/Abounu Governorship Campaign Organization, Professor Steve Ugbah thrilled the audience by dancing with one of the local dance groups at the occasion.
Students of the College of Advanced and Professional Studies, CAPS, Makurdi, stopped Chief Dr Ortom and his entourage at their school on their way back and expressed their solidarity.