Why I allowed Obi use my vehicle during Benue visit

Former Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has explained why he made his vehicle available to Peter Obi during the latter’s recent visit to the state, describing the gesture as a courtesy to a former governor and presidential candidate.

Ortom, through his media aide, Terver Akase, said refusing to assist Obi with transportation during his humanitarian visit would have been “petty” and unbecoming of a former governor.

Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, had visited Benue as part of efforts to meet victims and families affected by the June 2025 massacre in Yelewata.

The clarification followed an allegation by the Benue State Government that Ortom facilitated Obi’s visit and questions over why he would provide transportation for a presidential candidate while publicly backing President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 election.

The controversy followed Obi’s visit to Makurdi last Tuesday, when youths reportedly blocked his convoy around Gyado Villa, a few kilometres from the airport, disrupting his planned movement to Yelewata.

Following the incident, Governor Hyacinth Alia’s Chief Press Secretary, Kula Tersoo, alleged that Ortom played a role in arranging Obi’s visit.

Tersoo said the state government’s investigation linked the vehicle used to convey Obi from the Makurdi Airport to Ortom.

He identified the vehicle as a Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number ABUJA: GWA 608 BT, adding that a check of Federal Road Safety Corps records showed it was registered in Ortom’s name and linked to his Judges Quarters address in Makurdi.

The governor’s aide subsequently questioned why a politician supporting Tinubu would make his vehicle available to Obi, suggesting that the gesture raised questions about Ortom’s political allegiance ahead of the 2027 election.

Ortom, however, rejected the suggestion that lending his vehicle to Obi amounted to political collaboration, saying the former governor and presidential candidate deserved basic courtesy while visiting Benue.

He said, “Peter Obi is a former governor, a presidential candidate and one of the most prominent political figures in the country. Imagine how it would have sounded if Chief Ortom had refused to assist him with transportation while he was in Benue on a humanitarian mission to visit internally displaced persons.

“Such a refusal would rightly have been viewed as petty, inhospitable and beneath the dignity of a former governor. Indeed, extending such a courtesy should ordinarily have been the responsibility of the Benue State Government itself, given the status of the visitor.”

The former governor also criticised attempts to attach political motives to the gesture, describing such efforts as “ridiculous and shameful.”

He said, “It is therefore both ridiculous and shameful for anyone to attempt to criminalise or politicise the simple act of making a vehicle available to a fellow Nigerian leader.”

Ortom accused the Alia administration of creating controversy over what he described as a humane and statesmanlike act.

“That the Alia administration is now trying to make a controversy out of what was merely a humane, courteous and statesmanlike gesture exposes the poverty of its argument and the desperation behind its propaganda,” he said.

He maintained that extending courtesies across political lines should not be interpreted as evidence of political disloyalty, describing attempts to portray his action as wrongdoing as “intellectually dishonest and politically immature.”

Ortom also dismissed the allegation that he was being “double-faced”, describing the claim as laughable.

He said that although he supported Obi during the 2023 presidential election, he had since publicly declared his support for Tinubu, insisting that his current political position was not inconsistent with his decision to assist Obi during the Benue visit.