I Have No Regrets Working Against Atiku In 2023 - Former Benue Governor, Samuel Ortom

 

Former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has stated that he has no regrets working against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election.

 

Recall that Ortom worked against Atiku, even though the former VP was the flag bearer of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

 

Ortom was one of the five PDP governors at the time, known as G5, who openly rejected Atiku as the PDP flag bearer and worked for Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 poll.

 

In an interview with Channels TV on Monday, July 21, Ortom said he didn’t view working against his party’s candidate as a betrayal. According to him, he was working for the interest of his people and not his personal interest.

 

““I did not hide it. I have no regret, Which betrayal? Pursuing my interest and the interest of my people? The interest of my people is that you provide what they want. If you ask me, I would describe politics as a game of doing what your people want, not what I want. Politics is a game of interest, and if I have somebody working against my interest and the interest of my people, I have to fight back.”he said

 

Ortom said it was unheard of that a northerner, Muhammadu Buhari, was president for eight years and then another northerner in the person of Atiku would succeed him.

 

We said no; it is in the unwritten constitution that the North will do eight years and the South will do eight years. So, we believed in a southern presidency and not a northern presidency. That was why some of us supported a southern presidential aspirant.” he said