Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Monday declared that he has been given a “red card” by his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying he was now floating and awaiting any party to admit him.
“As for party, I have been given red card and I’m outside the pitch. So, if I have been given red card and I’m standing outside, I’m a free man,” Ortom said at the inauguration of a Special Adviser to Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Jerome Torshimbe.
“So, I don’t know what will happen next; but I’m waiting. If approached, then I will tell the Benue people that I’m joining another football club.
“I’m a child of destiny and it’s only God that will decide what I will be,” Ortom said.
The governor, who decried the challenges facing the state, enjoined the people to be united so that development would come to the state.
“Many people have been wondering that though we dedicated the state to God, we are still facing challenges; but all these challenges that we see today, we shall see them no more.
“All that we are required to do is not to begin to be wayward in our conduct, but to move to the righteous side of God. Once we do that, things will work out for our good.
“Looking at what is happening to us, sometimes I’m tempted to think that we are dying like people who do not have God. But we must choose the path of walking with God, obeying and serving him.
“If we do that and ensure that His values get into our hearts and we work with him, development will be inevitable. Let us work and encourage those things that can develop us.
” We need to come together and not allow party or ethnicity to divide us.”
