The PDP National Chairman,
Uche Secondus, on Wednesday led some PDP governors and senators on a solidarity
visit to Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue following recent threats to impeach
him.
In a brief speech when they
met Mr Ortom at the Government House, Makurdi, Mr Secondus described the
removal plot initiated by eight members of the Benue legislature as “an act of
illegality”, and urged Nigerians to rise against it.
“The House has 30 members;
eight members cannot form a quorum to seat, much less plot an impeachment
process,” he said.
The PDP chairman said that
they were in Benue to support the governor and welcome him back to the PDP
family.
He assured him that the PDP
would stand by him, urging him to ignore recent allegations hurled at him by
people angry that he had left the All Progressives Congress.
Governor Seriake Dickson of
Bayelsa, who spoke on behalf of the governors, assured Mr Ortom of his
colleagues’s support in his trying times.
Mr Dickson described the
impeachment notice to Mr Ortom by a minority group at the Benue State House of
Assembly as “nonsense”, vowing that the governors would never allow it.
“Democracy and the rule of
law must be given the proper respect in Nigeria,” he said.
He decried the spate of
killings of innocent Nigerians in different parts of the country, and urged the
federal government to tackle the phenomenon.
Mr Dickson called on the
people of Benue to stand by their governor, especially now that he was passing
through a trying moment.
Responding, Mr Ortom
described himself as “a prodigal son”, and pleaded that PDP should fully
receive him back into its fold.
He described PDP as his
home, saying that he had returned to his family, given that he was no longer
comfortable in APC.
He charged the federal
government to respect democratic norms and principle, saying that he would
resist any attempt by any agency of government or persons to intimidate him.
The governor decried the
withdrawal of police personnel from the Internally Displaced Persons camps in
the state, and described the action as “very dangerous.”
Also speaking, the state
chairman of PDP, John Ngbede, admonished the governor to remain firm and not be
intimated, saying that the PDP family was solidly behind him in his travails.
(NAN)
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