Ortom Calls Governor Alia Hypocrite, Threatens To Expose Him …Apologises To SGF Akume

The cold war between Governor Hyacinth Alia and the immediate past Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, is still boiling to high heavens. On Tuesday, Ortom took a swipe at his succesor,, called him a hypocrite and threatened to expose him.

“You are a hypocrite. I will  expose the rot in your administration”, Ortom fired.

Ortom made this statement during an interactive session with journalists at his residence in Makurdi, while reacting to the report of a probe panel which accused his administration of being unable to account for N139.8 billion during his eight-year tenure.

Ortom said, “As from today, I am going to be exposing this government (Alia’s administration) for its hypocrisy, outright looting of the state resources and evils committed against the people of the state and the ceding of our land to foreigners.

“So many lies have been said against me. After three years, I concluded that if I remain silent it will amount to admittance, so I need to defend myself and let the world know that what Alia is doing is pure persecution.”

He challenged his successor to a public debate for both of them to showcase their performances based on resources accrued to each of the administrations.

He, also, reflected on his political differences with his former leader, Senator George Akume, and called for unity and collaboration in the interest of Benue State and Nigeria.

He apologized to Akume for making an unfounded statement after he won his re-election in 2019 that he had “retired Akume politically”, while openly appealing to Akume that he regretted making that statement.

He said: “During my prayers afterwards, I came to realise that the remark was made out of arrogance because I later acknowledged the fact that only God determines people’s destinies.”