APC Wants Me, But I’m Not Leaving PDP – Samuel Ortom

Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom has come out to say that even if APC has been making plans to entice him, he does not intend to quit PDP anytime soon.

The governor revealed this recently during the State Elective Congress of the PDP in Makurdi.

According to him, after consulting with his friends and allies, he has made up his mind to stay with PDP to do everything possible to build the party.

He added that he would not fail his supporters, and together, they will continue to be victorious with the ruling party in the state.

His words, “It is true that the APC has invited me to come back to APC and they are propagating that I am leaving the PDP and this is far from the truth.

“I told then I’ll come and ask you (the state congress); Do you want me to decamp to APC?”

“I will communicate this to my friends in the APC and I will tell them that I have consulted with you and you asked me not to leave.”

“I’ll not fail you, we shall continue to be victorious.”

“By the grace of God, our party will sustain the gains of 2019, through to 2023 because the successes we have recorded were made possible by the support of our party members.”

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The All Progressives Congress (APC) is a political party in Nigeria, formed on 6 February 2013 in anticipation of the 2015 elections. APC candidate Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election by almost 2.6 million votes. Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan conceded defeat on 31 March. This was the first time in Nigeria’s political history that an opposition political party unseated a governing party in a general election and one in which power transferred peacefully from one political party to another. In addition, the APC won the majority of seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2015 elections, though it fell shy of winning a super-majority to override the ability of the opposition People’s Democratic Party to block legislation.

Formed in February 2013, the party is the result of a merger of Nigeria’s three biggest opposition parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the new PDP – a faction of then ruling People’s Democratic Party. The resolution was signed by Tom Ikimi, who represented the ACN; Senator Annie Okonkwo on behalf of the APGA; Ibrahim Shekarau, the Chairman of ANPP’s Merger Committee; and Garba Shehu, the Chairman of CPC’s Merger Committee. Ironically, less than 2 years before the party’s historic victory in the 2015 elections, Messrs. Annie Okonkwo, Tom Ikimi and Ibrahim Shekarau resigned from the party and joined the PDP.

Prior to the formation of the APC and its victory in the 2015 elections, Muhammadu Buhari had previously contested (and subsequently lost) the Nigerian presidential elections of 2003 and 2007 as the presidential nominee of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the 2011 Nigerian presidential election as the presidential nominee of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).