Ahead of the 2023 election, Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, has reportedly inaugurated a campaign team for the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, in Benue.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that according to an associate of the governor, who pleaded anonymity, while Ortom had not openly endorsed a particular candidate, he had called on his foot soldiers to embrace Obi.
“Governor Ortom has already inaugurated an Obi team using his most trusted aides and allies,” Punch quotes the source as saying.
“Former governorship aspirant, Professor Dennis Tyavyar, is Chairman of the group. He was Commissioner for Education under Ortom before he stepped down to contest the governorship election.”
The G5: Governors Ortom, Nyesom Wike, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Seyi Makinde of Benue, Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Oyo states respectively, had renounced their membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Council in September 2022, demanding, among others, the resignation of the party’s National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, to pave the way for a southern successor.