Benue: Air Force Security Bounces Governor Ortom; Denies Him Entry To Receive Osinbajo

By Adesina Soyooye

The Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, received one of his worst embarrassments on Saturday, February 12, at the Air Force Base, Makurdi.

Air Force Security personnel humiliated the Governor out of the Air Base.

Ortom, as protocol demands, went to the Base to receive the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. The Vice President was on his way to  attend the Convocation Ceremony of the Federal University, Wukari.  Protocol required the Governor of the State to receive the VP at the Base which serves as the only Airport in the State.

But Ortom was denied entry into the Base by the Air Force Security. They stopped him from receiving the Vice President.

An embarrassed Ortom went back to the Government House. He attributed the incident to politics, and described it as “politics carried too far.”

Speaking to Journalists at the Government House, he said protocol has been breached over Politics.

“How can I go to the Air Force Base and I am bounced back? In my State? It’s politics taken too far, and somebody will account for it”, the Governor lamented.

Continuing Ortom said: “I feel so sad that there are certain things you don’t play politics with and I must continue to talk about this injustice.”

It is not known why Governor Ortom was so treated in his State by the Air Force Security. But opinion is that it must have been an order “from above.”

The Governor has been very unsparing in  harsh criticisms of President Muhammadu Buhari and his Government.

Ortom, decamped to the PDP from the APC, almost at the end of his first term in office as Governor of Benue State. He won his second term ticket under the PDP, a party he had earlier defected from to the APC. He said he went back to the PDP because of the injustice  the Buhari Government has, allegedly, been meting out on his people, especially, by allegedly condoning the activities of rogue herdsmen  killing his subjects and taking over their farmlands.

Since then, the relationship between Ortom and the Buhari administration has been very untidy. A couple of weeks ago, the Governor said he has been blocked from  having access to the President in Abuja.

The Air Force Base incident is a new low in the untidy relationship.