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Tag: Samuel Ortom

  • NPFL: Ortom donates 36-seater bus, N10m to Lobi Stars FC

    NPFL: Ortom donates 36-seater bus, N10m to Lobi Stars FC

    Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue on Saturday donated a 36-seater Toyota bus and N10 million to Lobi Stars Football Club of Makurdi.

    Presenting the gifts to the club at the Aper Aku Sadium, Makurdi, Ortom charged the players to lift the 2019/2020 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) title.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Lobi Stars FC players while returning from Ilorin, Kwara had a fire incident around Adaka, in Gwer West Local Government Area of the state.

    The club’s bus got burnt to ashes while the players escaped with minor injuries.

    Ortom pledged to continue supporting the club in spite of the hash economic situations in the state.

    He further promised to reward the team handsomely should they win the current league title.

    The governor also commended the management team for their excellent job done so far adding that he was proud of the club.

    He said he was happy that the club had provided a platform where some players passed through to play at the international level.

    Earlier, the Vice Chairman, Lobi Stars Football Club, Mr Mike Idoko, commended the governor for his contributions and support to the club and pledged to deliver on their mandate.

  • I’ll not anoint anybody as my successor – Ortom

    Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue says he has no plans to anoint anybody as his successor.

    Ortom, while addressing PDP stakeholders’ on Friday in Makurdi, assured them that he would allow the party to field the most acceptable candidate for the governorship election in 2023.

    “If someone tells you that I have anointed him as my successor, tell him that he is lying. I will work with any candidate that the party fields in 2023.

    “Nobody should deceive you that he is my anointed candidate for the 2023 general elections’.”

    The governor, however, advised the party to respect zoning arrangements while deciding people to contest the chairmanship and councillorship seats in local government elections slated to hold Nov. 30.

    “Zoning is the only thing that will give us the results we want at the end of the day. Zoning is very critical in politics.

    “I advise people intending to contest the council polls to back down if the zoning formula is not in their favour. If you are not favoured by the zoning arrangement, do not go there. Do not even buy form. Do not waste your resources.

    “We are going to set up a committee that will collect the results after the primaries. We will screen the results. Any aspirant not favoured by zoning will be disqualified.

    “We are going to do everything in a transparent manner. I am not going to impose any candidate on you.”

    He assured the stakeholders that there were better days ahead, stressing that more contracts would be awarded and more appointments made.

    Ortom added that more jobs would be created and several other things that could be of benefit to them would come their way soon.

    Earlier, PDP Chairman in Benue, Sir John Ngbede, had encouraged the party faithfuls to ensure that the party won overwhelmingly during the forthcoming council polls.

  • Challenge your defeat in court, Ortom tells Akume

    Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue has advised Sen. George Akume (APC-Benue North West) to challenge his loss at Saturday’s Senatorial poll in court.

    Ortom, who handed down the advise on Thursday in Makurdi at a news conference, said the courts were properly constituted to handle such cases.

    “Go to the court and seek redress. The tribunals are already there to address yours issues. That is what a normal person ought to have done.

    “The people of Benue North West Senatorial District have retired Akume from the National Assembly. So, let him go back home. He had been in government for 20 years. All this while he was contesting with people and winning them but they took their defeat in good faith.

    “Akume should rather be grateful to the people for giving him the opportunity to serve them for 20 years at a stretch,” he said.

    He advised youths not to allow themselves to be used by politicians to advance their selfish interest.
    “I also commend Benue residents for heeding to my call for a peaceful for election,” he said.

  • 2019: Why I defected to PDP – Ortom

    Gov Samuel Ortom has said that he chose to pursue his governorship ambition on the platform of the PDP because it was a more credible alternative for him to achieve his policies.

    Ortom stated this on Monday in Makurdi, during the flag-off of his governorship campaign.

    The governor, who won his election on the platform of the APC where he defected to, after losing the PDP governorship ticket in 2014, returned to the PDP some months ago.

    “We had to abandon that platform in search of one that offers more accommodation and support for our policies, especially the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017,” he said.

    He regretted that highly paced officials in the APC-led Federal Government made various attempts to frustrate an imperative legislation aimed at finding lasting peace between farmers and herders in the state.

    “Such frustrating efforts by highly placed members of the federal government necessitated my exit from the party to one that will not compromise our stance on a matter so key to the Benue people.

    “This is the platform on which we seek the renewal of our mandate. No one will bend us as far as the Ranching Law is concerned because we draw consent and sustained support from the Benue people,” he said.

    Ortom, while reacting to critics’ allegation that he had not performed, declared that he had done well “given the circumstances of our economy and unwarranted aggression and attacks on Benue”.

    “I may not be a genius, but I perfectly know what I wanted as a governor. I cannot lie to the people that trust me. Take this truth from me; my government has done well, and statistics don’t lie.”

    Commenting on the issue of nonpayment of salaries, the governor said that funds were being sourced to pay outstanding arrears of salaries, gratuities, and pensions.

    Also speaking, the former Senate President, David Mark, appealed to the Benue electorate to vote massively for all candidates seeking elections on the party’s platform to secure a better future for the state.

    The immediate former governor of the state and a senatorial candidate of the party, Mr Gabriel Suswam, accused the APC of being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

    He, therefore, urged the people to vote for the PDP and reject the APC.

    Earlier, in his remarks, former Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, also a senatorial candidate, assured Ortom that the people from Benue South Senatorial zone would vote for the PDP.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that dignitaries at the event included the National Deputy Secretary of the party, Mr Emmanuel Agbo, an ex senate president, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, PDP board member, Mrs. Margaret Icheen, and Ortom’s appointees.

  • Benue,Taraba Govs offer amnesty to criminals

    Govs Samuel Ortom of Benue and Darius Ishaku of Taraba have resolved to grant amnesty to criminals operating along the border of the states.

    The offer is part of the resolution at the end of the joint security meeting between the two states held at the Federal University Wukari in Taraba.

    Ishaku, who read the communique at the end of the tour of some border communities of Abako, Sai and Dogon-Gawa, said the amnesty window took effect immediately and would expire by the end of January 2019.

    “We are willing to give amnesty to criminals who are willing to renounce criminality and surrender their weapons so that we can give them better jobs and reintegrate them into the society.

    “Criminals willing to surrender, including those that defaulted in the past, are free to contact any of us (governors), traditional rulers and security agencies.

    “Elections are around the corner and we will like to do this between now and end of January so that we can secure our places and synergise for peaceful elections,” he said.

    The meeting condemned the spate of kidnappings, armed robbery and banditry involving youths in the states at the border.

    It stressed the need for job creation as a fundamental tool to reduce unemployment which made youths to take to criminality.

    It called for adequate provision of logistics support to the security agencies by both the federal and state governments to sustain surveillance.

    The meeting called on the people of the areas to report all forms of criminality to appropriate authorities and not shield criminals in their domain.

    “The governors have resolved to constitute a joint security committee made up of people of proven integrity and locals of the area between the two states to address the security challenges and a joint security forces to be constituted with a police station at Sai.

    “The joint security meeting mandates the Boundary Committees of the states in conjunction with the National Boundary Commission to meet and ensure that boundary issues involving the two states are resolved,” he said.

    Ortom called on the people of the states to report criminals in their domain to security agencies, be law abiding and shun acts capable of dividing them.

    The security meeting was attended by heads of security agencies from both states, traditional rulers and top government functionaries from the states, including the immediate past governor of Benue, Dr Gabriel Suswam.

     

  • I will pay any amount adopted as minimum wage – Ortom

    Benue governor Samuel Ortom has promised to pay any amount agreed upon by the negotiating committee on minimum wage.
    Ortom stated this on Tuesday in Makurdi, when members of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and other sister unions visited him to register their support for the upward review of wages.
    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the Organised Labour has proposed a minimum wage of N30,000, vowing to shut down the country if the demand was not met.
    Ortom, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Terwase Orbunde, said that he was not against the upward review of workers’ minimum wages “in spite of the current economic challenges bedeviling the country”.
    “I will work in line with the outcome of the new minimum wage committee.
    “I am known for championing improved welfare for workers. I did it when I was the Chairman of Guma Local Government Area.
    “When I came on board as governor, primary school teachers were not receiving the N18,000.00 minimum wage. I stepped up their salaries without waiting for them to mount pressure on me to do so.
    “I wanted them to be at par with other civil servants in the State.
    “They did not march in procession before I increased their salaries. I am not against a better life for workers,” he said.
    NLC president Ayuba Wabba, who was represented on the visit by the National Auditor, Simon Anchaver, had earlier urged state and federal governments to accept the N30,000 new minimum wage to avert a total shut down of the country on Nov.6.
    The State Chairman, TUC, Mr Ordue Tartenger, in his remarks, said that workers should not be forced to protest before they could get basic demands.
    Tartenger argued that the minimum wage had to be reviewed upwards because the prices of goods, including fuel, had gone up.
    “Money has lost its value; prices of all items have gone up and workers cannot afford basic needs of their families,” he fumed.
    NAN

  • Gov. Ortom gives quit notice to Public/Civil Servants eyeing partisan politics

    As activities for the 2019 general elections build up, Gov Samuel Ortom of Benue has served quit notice to all Public and Civil Servants eyeing partisan politics in the state.

    In a circular by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Anthony Ijohor (SAN), conveying the directive, the governor asked such officers to resign before May 29 or face sanctions.

    The circular read in part: “The Executive Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom has directed that all Political Appointees/Civil Servants on the pay roll of the Benue State Government, who wish to seek public offices in the 2019 General Elections, should as a matter of necessity resign their appointments, latest 29 May, 2018.”

    He, however, warned against canvassing for votes and campaigning for elective offices without resigning.

    The governor also warned that such actions would attract sanctions and hence a breach of the governors’ directive.

    Some of the lawyers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria on the directive, said the governor had the right under the Electoral Act to ask for their resignation since they were “mere” political appointees.

    They also explained that both Public and Civil Service rules prohibited officers from partaking in partisan politics while in active service.

     

  • Benue lost 1,800 lives to herdsmen, farmers clashes in 3 years — Ortom

    Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue said on Wednesday that 1,878 lives were lost to the lingering clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the state, between 2013 and 2016.

    Ortom, while receiving Edward Kallon, UN Resident Coordinator, who led a UN delegation on a courtesy visit to his office, said the killings cut across 12 local governments.

    Quoting a report from a research conducted by the State Emergency Management Agency and Benue Planning Commission, in collaboration with NGOs, he said that 750 persons were seriously wounded while 200 others were still missing.

    He said that 99,427 households were affected, while property worth billions of naira were destroyed.

    “A 2014 survey, conducted by the Benue Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, found out that the destruction by herdsmen exceeded N95 billion in 10 local governments in that year alone,” he said.

    The governor urged the UN to support the state’s efforts to tackle the challenge “in view of its destructive effects”.

    Earlier, Kallon had assured the governor that the UN would provide assistance to the state to enable it tackle its security challenges.

    The UN official promised to provide institutional architecture targeted at preventing conflict in Benue, and sympathised with Ortom and the Benue people over the perennial crises.

     

     

     

    NAN