Congress: Aggrieved Benue APC members fights back, as Guma LGA Chair tells Ortom to accept them into PDP

Following the All Progressives Congress (APC) ward congress which held across the country last week, about 243 aggrieved aspirants in Benue State have alledged marginalisation and are fighting back.

They have dragged the party to Court for excluding them from participating in the ward congresses.

Former APC candidate for the House of Representatives for Makurdi/Guma, Mr. Conrad Utaan disclosed this when he led the Chairman and Ward Executives of APC in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State and some of his supporters on a courtesy call on Governor Samuel Ortom in Makurdi on Friday.

Speaking on how APC shortchanged about 243 members who purchased nomination forms and met all the requirements to contest executives, Utaan said, they were locked out, while a list has been compiled and sent to Abuja.

He said: “We happen to belong to a party that calls itself the APC that is supposed to be a progressive party.

“However our party has demonstrated the height of impunity that you can find in any political space.

He described the manner which the APC hierarchy in Benue State treated them as “419”, having made them to use their hard earned resources to purchase nomination forms.

According to him, APC coffin has been finally nailed by elements within the party in Benue State.

“We are not going to take it lying down. I am happy that the 243 people who bought the forms have already approached the courts for proper interpretation of what their rights really are in the APC.

“We are challenging it, the people who bought forms are challenging it in court. It is rather unfortunate that the leadership of the APC in Benue has decided to kill the party with their own hands with this kind of impunity.”

Utaan told governor Ortom that he was in Benue Peoples House to seek shelter under the Governor saying that as a man of peace, equity and justice Governor Ortom should accommodate them under the umbrella.

Ortom in his reaction said, Utaan is his political son, while expressing joy that he’s back, noting that there’s no permanent enemy or friend, but interest in politics.

The governor explained that he has done similar thing in the past when he left APC for PDP in order to realise his second term ambition.

He assured those defecting to PDP of equal treatment, saying the party was big enough to accommodate all and sundry.