The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole says the defection of  Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has reduced governance in Nigeria to Nollywood.

Addressing a press conference Friday night at the national secretariat of APC in Abuja, Oshiomhole challenged Ortom to show one single project completed under him in the past three years of his administration.

His words: “If a governor confessed that he shared government money to party leaders, is that the reasons he will be re-elected? Then if he has shared the government money with party leaders then the party leaders should try to keep in office by guaranteeing him the ticket since he shared the money with them.

“If on the other hand he claimed that he refused to share the money, then what have you done with the money? You couldn’t pay the workers’ salaries with the money you refused to share, have you built more roads for the people of Benue state?

“What have you accomplished with the bailout fund and the Paris fund? So let me assure that what I promise, I do. And please mark my word each time I speak, that negotiable and verifiable grievances would be addressed.

“And I said we won’t deny somebody ticket on account of a conflict between him and any other person if he is at home with his people, even yesterday I emphasized that.

“When people say automatic ticket, does it guarantee automatic victory when people are against you? I said no. Because we didn’t give you departure ticket, so how are we going to give you a return ticket?

“So, I couldn’t assure governor Ortom that we will overrule the position of our members and leaders in Benue State, that come 2019 we will give him ticket. I wanted to simply cross check with him in the allegations made against him and he was to come by Wednesday that is why he organized that drama.

“And that tells you the quality of reasoning. With all due respect to Governor Ortom, how can you reduce governance to Nollywood, saying you wanted to go to Abuja to meet with the National Working

“From the point of view of our leaders in Benue state, their position was clear that they believe that fielding Governor Ortom on the APC platform in the 2019 election can only lead to electoral defeat for a number of reasons.

“They reminded us that in spite of the allocations accruing to Benue state and in spite of the bailout funds amounting to over ₦20 billion that he received in two installments of ₦10 billion each and in addition to the huge sums of money that Benue State collected from the Paris Club Refund. Governor Ortom has not, and is not paying salaries to Benue workers as and when due, including teachers, local government employees and the state civil servants.

“He is owing some of them as much as 12 months salary, some more than 16 months and so the entire economy of Benue State that survives largely on civil servants salaries is to that extent compromised.

“Of course, what is not readily obvious to many, and which they told us, is the fact that most of our elders who have built houses as part of their retirement plans and who expect to live on rent paid by civil servants who are tenants, the fact that the entire civil service in Benue State are not being paid means that they in turn, are defaulting in the payments of their rents and you know the implication of this on traders and the commercial life of Benue State.

“This element alone substantially explains the vicious cycle of poverty in Benue State that has been deepened under Governor Ortom.”

While challenging Governor Ortom to name one project he started and completed within the three years, Oshiomhole continued: “Gov. Ortom played up the ethnic dimension of criminality whereas in truth, some of those who have been killed were killed not by Muslims, they were killed by Christians of Benue state origin, including those he has employed.

“So, his attempt to explain away criminality by playing up ethnic sentiments is not helpful to what he should do as governor to manage the situation better. After all, those in Benue state have always been there by whatever description and therefore, Governor Ortom’s predecessors including Governor Suswam had found ways to manage this diversity.

“So, Ortom’s incapacity to manage it and even to seek to make political capital of the death of Benue people is most unfortunate because I believe that even in politics, there should be a level of morality.”